Policy and practice in outdoor recreation participation in UMkhanyakude district, KwaZulu-Natal
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Date
2009
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Abstract
The fundamental aim of the study is to establish the outdoor recreation
participation patterns in Umkhanyakude District. In other words the study
wants to discover the role played by policy and practice in usage and community
involvement in outdoor recreation in the study area. Among other things, the
study is also carried out with a purpose of motivating the local community at
Umkhanyakude, not only to participate in outdoor recreation activities, but
conserve them for future generations to serve their physical, mental, spiritual
and emotional needs. It was anticipated that the community would be aware
that it is not only about recreation only, but also about boosting the economy of
the study area and the entire Province of KwaZulu-Natal.
The research study has therefore operated with the following objectives in mind:
(a) To established the level of participation in outdoor recreation
activities among the Umkhanyakude communities.
(b) To investigate the adequacy and provision of outdoor recreation
facilities in the study area.
(c) To ascertain the strategies or management practices used by the
Umkhanyakude Municipality to encourage local communities to be
involved in outdoor recreation activities.
(d) To indicate the perceived types of policies existing in the study area
as well as their level of implementation.
(e) To establish the community’s perceived benefits of participating in
outdoor recreation activities in the study area. The study has also identified related hypotheses towards finding answers to the
research question. The method of collecting, analysing and interpreting data
involved computer manipulating of data utilizing the statistical package for the
social sciences (SPSS).
The findings of this study reveal that most of the stated objectives were met,
some were supported some were not. Fundamentally, the research project had
tried to reveal how policy and practice play a role in addressing outdoor
recreation participation, provision, strategic management and community
benefits. On the whole, the majority of stakeholders have viewed strategies for
benefitting the previously disadvantaged communities as an appropriate policy
to address inequalities from the past.
In essence the findings are that the people of Umkhanyakude Municipality are
positive towards outdoor recreation participation in the future. Whereas the
minority of the respondents felt that the provision of facilities was adequate.
Some of these recreation facilities were also perceived to be located far away,
run down and/or poorly maintained. Another important finding is that whereas
recreation officials were of the view that recreation management practices in the
study area were good and well implemented, the majority of recreators and local
communities thought that the recreation management practices were poor and
not in line with recreation development principles.
Another set of objectives-based findings indicated that recreation officials
thought that the existence of policies and their implementation was good. On
the same opinion, the majority of recreators and local communities felt that these policies and their implementation were indeed poor. Additionally, the
majority of respondents prominently specified that they would rather benefit
from skills development, employment opportunities and infrastructural
development. These were more functional variables preferred by respondents
than otherwise.
Finally, the research inquiry came up with recommendations which sought to
ameliorate the negative findings, more specifically on the role of policy
formulation and its implementation. Some of these findings relate to factors
such as participation, provision, strategic management and community benefits,
which have induced recommendations such as development of new strategies,
accessibility of outdoor recreation facilities, organising of recreation awareness
campaigns, introduce a new curriculum on recreation and tourism.
Description
A dissertation of submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters in
Recreation and Tourism in the Department of
Recreation and Tourism at the
University of Zululand, 2009.
Keywords
Outdoor recreation, Tourism