Tourist perceptions and uses of urban green infrastructure: An exploratory cross-cultural investigation

Highlights

• The paper enhances knowledge regarding the role of UGI in urban tourism perspective.

• A cross-cultural comparative study among UGI tourists is conducted in eight European countries.

• Our findings validate well-established trends in European urban tourism

• Neighbouring countries tend to be the most significant tourist markets of urban destinations.

• Tourists enjoyed visiting UGI for some light physical activity, relaxation and socialization.

Abstract

Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) serves both inhabitants’ and visitors’ numerous and various needs. This research aimed to enhance knowledge regarding the role of UGI in urban tourism. The research questions addressed tourists’ perceptions of UGI, their understanding and uses of UGI, and the ways that this understanding influenced their travel choice to specific urban destinations. A cross-cultural comparative study among urban tourists was carried out in eight European countries. The selection of case studies followed a roughly comparative logic, employing the same on-site questionnaire survey administered in a sample of large and medium size cities in Southern European, Central European and Northern European countries. Looking from the perspective of the tourists’ countries of origin, our findings validate a well-established trend in international tourism, namely the fact that neighbouring countries tend to be the most significant tourist markets of an urban destination. The other major finding confirmed the most well-known tourist movement patterns of Northern and Central Europeans travelling to the Mediterranean for tourism purposes. While the study revealed that the majority of the tourists interviewed were not very familiar with the term ‘Green Infrastructure’, nor with specific UGI features offered in the visited cities, the importance of UGI was acknowledged and viewed in a mostly very positive light. The majority of respondents enjoyed visiting UGI and used it for some light physical activity or for purposes of relaxation, socialization, and in order to explore the culture and society of the destination city. The fact that most UGI in the case study cities is located around or within a short distance from important heritage sites provided UGI with an indirect possibility of being included in the tourists’ visiting plans. In conclusion, the results of this study may prove to be very helpful to local and regional authorities in considering how to plan, manage and promote an urban tourism destination’s green infrastructure as part of the tourism offer.

Introduction

The concept of “urban green infrastructure” (UGI) has emerged in the last few decades as a model for considering all forms of green spaces as an integrated network and of an importance equivalent to other urban infrastructure such as roads or energy systems. Its use has been gaining popularity in planning theory and policy, despite the difficulty in achieving a single definition. Here we refer to strategically planned networks of high quality designed, natural and semi-natural areas, including also other environmental features such as waterbodies, planned and managed to deliver a wide range of ecosystem services to their users and to protect biodiversity in urban settings (Jankovska et al., 2010; Berte and Panagopoulos, 2014). Practically speaking, UGI principally consists of urban parks, gardens, woodlands, nature areas, green streets and avenues and so on (Parker and Zingoni de Baro, 2019), as discussed in more detail below.

Current demographic trends indicate population growth in most urban areas worldwide, many becoming home to culturally diverse groups (in terms of race and ethnicity, traditions etc.) (Sasidharan et al., 2005). Much scientific literature already exists on the uses of and values placed on UGI by local residents and, generally speaking, recreational users, in urban settings, around Europe, including the use of urban green areas by various racial and ethnic minority groups (Mell, 2017; Sasidharan et al., 2005). However, urban tourism is a growing trend, especially in the “off-season”, with short breaks becoming popular all-year round in part as a result of cheaper airline travel but also for events and other activities marketed through effective branding and promotion. In research focusing on city branding there is some which focuses primarily on the use of green resources in the place branding context (Chan and Marafa, 2014; Gulsrud et al., 2013; Simon, 2004) but it is limited. However, the uses of UGI by these tourists and their corresponding perceptions have not yet been researched to any degree, nor does do available studies attempt to do so cross-culturally. Most relevant research on UGI use by visitors refers to selected European cases, which only represent certain types of UGI offered for urban tourism.

It is now clear that urban parks do not only provide recreational settings to local residents. Visitors from out-of-town will also use these green spaces as part of the suite of sights they plan to visit on their itineraries or as incidental locations, perhaps for shade in hot sunny weather or to escape the crowds. In some cases, particularly high-profile parks are major tourist attractions in their own right, such as the Central Park and the High-Line in New York City, (Konijnendijk et al., 2013). Hyde Park in London, Parc Güell in Barcelona – where tickets now have to be bought in advance, such is the demand and risk of crowding - and many others can also be considered destination parks (Terkenli et al., 2017). UGI may add value to urban tourism, or it may constitute the main tourist lure, e.g. the city of Minneapolis in the USA may be considered as a UGI urban tourist destination. Understanding the role of UGI in tourism and the values it offers to the tourism experience has potential benefits to the cities concerned both in a tourism promotion and tourism management context.

While tourists plan and carry out their visits to cities in a number of ways, the role and significance of UGI in the tourist experience acquires variable forms and weights according to the tourism product offered, in smaller versus larger urban destinations. Bigger cities tend to offer a greater variety of UGI possibilities, by nature of their size and the range of recreational possibilities, as opposed to smaller urban centres (cities and towns), usually connected to special-interest or alternative forms of tourism. In the latter, urban tourism tends to be variably, but also selectively related to the use of UGI and often in very specific ways, in connection to the form of tourism attracting visitors there in the first place. Whether intended or not, some UGI uses in European tourist destination cities are integral to the tourist visit, as noted above, while other UGI usage tends to be more or less incidental to the overall tourism experience (for instance, UGI may play a much more central role in small urban wellness and thermal destinations, or cultural landscape heritage sites (eg. Lednice-Valtice or Kromeriz near Brno in the Czech Republic), or even in pilgrimage destinations (eg. Fatima in Portugal, Wiltshier, 2009), rather than in destinations strictly connected with cultural and nightlife attractions (eg. Riga, Latvia and Bratislava, Slovakia).