"Managing to Optimize the Beneficial Outcomes of Recreation focuses on the need for public park and recreation agencies to optimize the beneficial outcomes of recreational opportunities they provide and on how such optimization can be achieved. The six chapters in Part 1 of the text explain what Outcomes-Focused Management (OFM) is, how it evolved, why it is needed, why it is credible, how it can and should be implemented by public municipal and wildland recreation park and recreation agencies. These introductory chapters also explain why every segment of a country's population needs to understand the existing science-based knowledge about the benefits of leisure, and why repositioning of people's currently too limited understanding and appreciation of the benefits of leisure is so badly needed. The six chapters of Part 2 describe how OFM has been used to help guide park and recreation policy development by agencies in Australia, Canada, the U.S., and New Zealand. Part 3 is comprised of eight chapters that describe how OFM has been applied to guide the development and implementation of management plans by various public park and recreation agencies. A large proportion of the chapters in Parts 2 and 3 were authored by practitioners who were directly involved in the applications described. Those chapters are rich in their descriptions of what was learned about how to, and how not to, apply and implement OFM. The four chapters of Part 4 describe other applications of OFM such as to promote more attention on the benefits to residents of local communities, determine the local impacts of recreation and tourism, and guide recreation-related health initiatives and wildlife management. The summary chapter critiques what the text and suggests future needed direction. This text was designed for leisure professionals as well as lay persons, politicians, and journalists. The primary hoped-for readers include leisure scientists, academics, and students; leisure professionals who work for municipal park and recreation agencies; and their counterparts who work for agencies that manage public wildlands on which outdoor recreation opportunities are provided. Managing to Optimize the Beneficial Outcomes of Recreation explains what OFM is, why it should be applied more widely to the management of recreation and related amenity resources and programs that are managed by public agencies, and how such management can and should be done." -- Publisher.

The 1958 Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, through a 1962 report, tasked federal agencies to inventory supply and demand for outdoor recreation participation. Recreation managers are progressively focusing on demand for the beneficial outcomes of recreation, but have struggled to structure planning and management models to guide decisions that optimize recreationists’ ability to attain desired benefits. The Outcomes Focused Management (OFM) framework links benefits to specific activity and setting combinations, giving managers a functional role in the process of benefit production. Past studies examining the OFM’s activity-setting-benefit relationship reported weak results, but suggest activity is a stronger predictor of benefit attainment than setting. A better understanding of how activity and setting inputs affect recreationists’ ability to realize desired benefits is needed for continued implementation of OFM, with the aim of improving attainment rates of positive recreation outcomes. This study used meta-analytic techniques with data compiled from 16 OFM studies to replicate and expand on published work. With the goal of improving the activity-setting-benefit model, this study introduced two predictor variables, previous visitation and visitors’ residential proximity to the site, controlled for the desirability of the benefit, and re-conceptualized the setting variable by testing whether study site is a better predictor of benefit attainment than different settings within a site. Two-way analysis of variance tests measured the dependence of 40 personal (PER) and household, community, economic, environmental benefits (HCEE) on activity participation and setting, using effect sizes and significance levels to compare seven models. This meta-analysis reciprocated findings of a 2004 study, failing to offer definitive evidence of linkages among recreation opportunities in the context of the models tested. Benefit items exhibiting relatively higher sensitivity to activity and setting inputs were 1) “Restore my body from fatigue” (PER), 2) “Improved respect for privately owned lands” (HCEE), 3) “Increased self-confidence” (PER), and 4) “Greater respect for private property and local lifestyles” (PER). Suggestions for future OFM studies and research on the activity-setting-benefit relationship are made, in addition to a summary of potential implications for OFM based on the findings of this study.

It is now widely recognized that recreation is as important as work. This revealing book analyzes leisure and outdoor recreation in terms of both their management and their wider importance to society. Specifically, it: clarifies the link between leisure, recreation, tourism and resource management reviews contemporary outdoor recreation management and concepts critically examines approaches to outdoor recreation planning and management in diverse recreational settings considers the future of outdoor recreation and the potential influences of economic, social, political and technological developments. Wide-ranging and topical, it considers such issues as motivation and choice, provision for people with special needs, the impact of outdoor recreation on the environment, and outdoor recreation in both urban and rural contexts. This comprehensively revised second edition has many sections rewritten and expanded to reflect contemporary development in leisure and outdoor recreation management in countries such as Australia, Canada, the UK, the US and New Zealand. With an extensive bibliography of more than 500 references and including further reading sections and review questions, it is an essential student purchase and one of the most comprehensive and international accounts of outdoor recreation management available.

Community Leisure and Recreation Planning offers an up-to-date, evidence-based approach to planning community leisure and recreation facilities, programs and services. It introduces readers to key theory and best practice in the planning of effective leisure and recreation projects. The book defines planning, leisure, recreation and other key concepts and explains why a thorough planning process is essential to achieving effective outcomes. It presents a comprehensive, integrative four phase model for undertaking leisure and recreation planning, including: pre-planning, planning research, preparing a plan, and implementing, monitoring and evaluating the outputs and outcomes of a plan. It provides a conceptual rationale for each component of the planning process, a detailed explanation of the tools and techniques that can be used, and extensive examples and international case study materials to demonstrate their use. The principles and techniques explained in the book are applicable at a range of community levels from small individual sites to regions, states and even countries. This is an essential course text for all leisure and recreation courses, and invaluable reading for academics, practitioners, stakeholders and students working in leisure and recreation planning, events, culture and sport.

Here is an ongoing, comprehensive assessment of trends, current situations, and the likely future of outdoor recreation supply and demand for the U.S. Readers can examine new and different aspects of the national demand, its resemblance to the past, and trends in the supply of outdoor recreation opportunities submitted from the private and public sectors. The technological, consumption-driven urban society of today demands a different mix of recreational pursuits and services and places a much heavier demand on our rich natural resources.