Welcome to Centre for Recreation Research
The Centre for Recreation Research has recently been formed in the School of Business.
The Centre is housed in the Department of Tourism and aims to establish a long-term
research programme to develop theoretical and practical knowledge about commercial
and non-commercial recreation developments in rural, urban and natural areas, both
in New Zealand and overseas.
Prior to the Centre for Recreation Research being established, staff in the Department of Tourism conducted research on tourism and recreation in rural and peripheral areas, including wilderness and backcountry use. Such research focussed on user patterns and behaviour, the contribution of recreation/tourism to regional development and the means by which recreation/tourism could be managed and promoted. Wilderness and back country tourism (including ecotourism operations) have been the subject of postgraduate and substantial external research funded projects conducted by staff since the early 1990s.
The Centre aims to facilitate collaboration and research activity amongst interested
researchers and postgraduate students from within the School of Business and wider
University.
Research Themes
Research themes relevant to the Centre for Recreation Research include:
- Economic opportunities and community benefits of recreation development including
community wellbeing (aligning to central government objectives)
- Commercial recreation development (entrepreneurship)
- Wilderness and back country tourism/recreation in natural areas
- Nature based tourism/Ecotourism operations development and management
- Natural area recreation management and planning
- Risk management in outdoor recreation/adventure tourism
- Heritage management in recreation-intensive areas
- Recreation research methods
- The impact of technology on wilderness recreation and related businesses
- Media and recreation relationships
- Adventure tourism
- Indigenous recreation and cultural landscape values
- Recreation experiences (product development and interpretation)
- Recreation Ecology
CRR Information Card
CRR Information Card can be found in PDF form at the link shown below
CRR Information Card
