Changing Dimensions
Home Gardens as Leisure Spaces
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jette Lykke Jensen
This paper explores gardening as an aspect of domestic recreation and investigates the role gardening plays as a contemporary leisure activity. A qualitative study will be conducted in the city of Kolding to understand the meanings of gardening as a form of outdoor recreation taking place at home. By walking with, talking with, and photographing participants in their home gardens, I explore their motivations and experiences with gardening and/or other forms of leisure in gardens. Writers debate the potential of gardening, in the sense of cultivating plants and growing food, to encourage more eco-conscious and sustainable lifestyles. However, engagement in gardening activities today seem challenged by various factors such as work hours, changing leisure patterns, and shifts toward the domestic garden as an outdoor living room. Based on the empirical findings, the paper discusses how gardening and the home garden as a leisure space is influenced and transformed by the material culture of gardening, changing social norms, and environmental debates.
The Influence of Perceived Risk on Terrorism in Destination Image and Tourist Behaviour
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rita Carballo, Carmelo J. León, Magdalena Carballo Fuentes, Rita Carballo, Rita Carballo
Peace and security are crucial conditions for economic development of any region or country. In the case of tourism, it becomes even more important for attracting tourists to the destination and to promote sustainable tourism development. This paper analyzes how the perceived risk of terrorism affects the image of the destination and the behavior of the visitor, all in the scenario of European destinations. For this purpose, it first performs a multiple regression analysis with structural equation model (SEM) to establish the causal relationships between terrorism risk, image and behavior. Next, it is analyzed if there are significant differences in the causal relationships due to the moderated effect of the variable destination. The results obtained help the implementation of recommendations marketing strategies in order to reduce the perceived risk in terrorism.
Does the Bestial Sports Event Make You a Happy Human?: Happiness (SWB) and Sport Event Participation
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tommy Andersson, Arminda Almeida Santana, Sergio Moreno Gil
One may wonder why there has been such a tremendous growth in amateur sport event participation. Does it make participants happier? One line of happiness research has focused on Subjective Well-Being (SWB) as a measure of an individual’s subjective evaluation of his/her own state of happiness. Previous research has paid attention to factors that positively influence an individual’s happiness. Health and personal growth have been found to be empirically significant factors (Delle Fave et al., 2011). These factors may also be related to participation in amateur sport events. Bestial is an obstacle competition and a running event held in Arucas on Gran Canaria. The race is organized in four different classes including one class for disabled. A sample of 700 participants answered questions about behavior, attitudes and SWB. Most research on SWB and events has been on cultural events but more research is needed in a sport event context (Richards, 2014a). The main research questions addressed by this study center around SWB and to what extent the individual’s SWB is related to the individual’s need for personal growth and frequency of race participation. The results show significant relations between SWB and attitudes towards personal growth and between SWB and frequency of sport event participation. There are no significant relations between SWB and sex, income, age or disabilities. In the conclusions, the trend towards more active tourism is discussed in relation to the importance of personal growth for a happy life.
