A Study On Perceived Crowding Of The Users Of Public Leisure And Tourism Resources

With the increasing income,Chinese people's need for tourism/leisure/recreation grows quickly.A large number of visitors result in the problem of crowding.The problem of crowding is not only a heavy burden for the environment carrying capacity,but also a serious threat to the experience satisfaction.In order to solve the problem of crowding,great efforts have been devoted to finding solutions.Some researchers think that the problem of crowding has been caused by the uniformity in vacation time and try to promote the flexibility in the paid vacation.Some researchers spare no effort to calculate the maximum number of visitors that the physical environment can carry.Administrative strategies have been proposed to supervise and control the number of visitors.However,the fact proves that the evaluation of those objective numbers fails to solve the problem of crowding.It is time to pay attention to the subjective perception of visitors except for the soaring numbers.In fact,crowding is a concept different from population density.Density is the objective description of numbers of people per unit area while perceived crowding is the subjective evaluation of density.Density may have an influence on the perceived crowding but the influence is definitely not absolute.Perceived crowding is influenced by physical,social and personal factors.In the era of the experience economy,consumers' experience is regarded as the core value of products and service.Consumers' satisfaction with the experience is the goal pursued by products and service providers.Based on the Dramaturgy proposed by Erving Goffman,Grove,Fisk&Bitner(1992)introduced Dramaturgy into the study of consumer experience and pointed out the consumer experience was also constructed from those four aspects-service providers(actors),service delivery/contact(performance),service environment(setting)and consumers(audiences).Crowding is the problem caused by the existence of "other audiences".Therefore,the solution to this problem is supposed to be found by investigating consumers' subjective perception of crowding.This research proposes questions on the basis of previous studies in perceived crowding:(1)Does the time perception have a significant influence on perceived crowding?Is the satisfaction significantly influenced by time perception and perceived crowding?(2)What kind of behavioral coping strategies will be taken by tourists?Do their coping strategies have a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived crowding and satisfaction?(3)As the public resource,the West Lake serves various user groups including tourists,local citizens and migrants.Are there any significant differences in their perceived crowding and coping strategies?To address questions mentioned above,the onsite self-administered survey was taken to collect data from 20th June through 1st August including three-day Dragon Boat National Holiday,three weekends and three randomly selected weekdays.Chinese versions of questionnaires were used in this survey which were conducted at six locations around the West Lake:Su Causeway,Bai Causeway,Quyuan Fenghe Park,Yellow Dragon Cave,Youth Activity Center and Sixth Park.Six trained graduate students were situated at each survey location to administer face-to-face questionnaires.Every 3rd visitor who was over the age of 18 and passed by was approached and asked to take part in this survey with a souvenir.A total of 1035 questionnaires were collected and 974 valid questionnaires were entered into computer via SPSS 20.0 with a valid response rate of 94.11%.Findings of analyses are shown as follows:(1)According to the responses of participants,their fun time perception has a significantly positive influence on satisfaction while perceived crowding has a significantly negative influence on satisfaction.Perceived crowding mediates the relationship between waiting time perception and satisfaction.(2)Both absolute displacement and temporal substitution are used to deal with crowding.Meanwhile,absolute displacement and temporal substitution have an influence on the relationship between perceived crowding and satisfaction as partial mediations.(3)There are significant differences in perceived crowding between tourists and local citizens.Local participants reported more choices in behavioral coping strategies.Absolute displacement and temporal substitution are reflected to be used by tourists while resource substitution and activity substitution are also used by local recreationists except for absolute displacement and temporal substitution.(4)Although there are no significant differences in perceived crowding between local citizens and migrants,they reflect differences in coping strategies.Absolute displacement is claimed to be used by migrants while local citizens have more choices in coping strategies including absolute displacement,temporal substitution,resource substitution,activity substitution and product shift.This research tries to find a solution to the problem of crowding from the users'perspective.The influence of users on satisfaction has been discussed from the perspectives of 'Self' and 'Others'.The independent travel is favored by an increasing number of people.Tourists and recreationists become more independently important in the process of experience construction.The satisfaction is significantly influenced by the self-constructed time perception.Tourists' behavioral coping strategies reduce the negative influence of perceived crowding on satisfaction as partial mediations.Academic contribution has been made to the study of perceived crowding and experience satisfaction.Meanwhile,suggestions for the problem of crowding and sustainable development of public leisure and tourism resources have been offered in the research.