Over the last 50 years , measuring and understanding outdoor recreation in the UK has primarily focused on the use of interviewer administered surveys – either in-home or telephone for large scale participation surveys or on site interviews for local visitor surveys.
Large scale surveys such as MENE in England, the Scottish Recreation Survey and the Wales Outdoor Recreation Survey have provided a wealth of data and insight on the volume and patterns of participation. However, the data landscape is changing and a number of factors need to be considered when planning for the future such as declining response levels to market research surveys and reduced budgets for clients.
This presentation will outline a number of new and emerging data options which have been or could be used to provide the required insight and understanding of patterns of outdoor recreation with a critical review of the relative advantages and disadvantages. Reference to some case studies will be used to highlight the potential of some of the options for consideration in the future.