An investigation of involvement in serious leisure, recreation specialization, and sport tourism of diving participants in Taiwan

Abstract

This study aimed at exploring the factors that affected diving participants to engage in sport tourism. The structure of this research and the survey instrument were developed based upon theories and empirical analysis research that were concerning serious leisure, recreation specialization, and sport tourism. The research subjects were the diving participants in Taiwan who were investigated by adopting questionnaire survey instrument in the study. The Distribution and collection questionnaires were processed on site at the recreation areas and at diving centers as well; a total of 341 valid questionnaires were collected. Based on statistical analysis, this study found as follows: (1) Serious leisure, recreational specialization, and sport tourism were positively correlated. (2) There were significant differences existed in the different demographic characteristics of participants in diving. Based on the findings, suggestions were given on operations for practitioners in water-based recreation industry, and the scarcity of present reference that called for the development of future studies on the domain of adventure recreation was implicated.Index Terms-serious leisure, recreational specialization, sport tourism, and diving.

The relationship between serious leisure and recreation specialization in sportspeople with and without physical disabilities

“…There are several studies that have shown the existence of a relationship between serious leisure and recreation specialization in specific sports practices ( Cheng and Shih, 2013 ; Liu et al., 2012 , 2013 ; Tsai, 2018 ). The uniqueness of this study lies in determining whether there is also a relationship between these two constructs in “competitive” sports practices and among different social groups which in this case were sportspeople with and without physical disabilities.…”

“…Several studies have found an association between the two constructs when analyzing them together in the context of various leisure practices ( Lee and Scott, 2013 ; Tsaur and Liang, 2008 ; Yang, 2011 ). Some authors have shown this complementarity in specific sports practices such as volleyball and softball ( Liu et al., 2013 ; Liu, 2012 ), motorcycling ( Cheng and Shih, 2013 ), scuba diving ( Liu et al., 2012 ), and tennis ( Tsai, 2018 ).…”

Recreational scuba diving as a special form of tourism: lessons from Taiwan

“…Therefore, after talking with PADI’s Taiwan Course Director, four diving sites, Yeliou, Longdong, Kenting and Green Island of Taiwan (see Figure 3), are selected as survey locations because of their rich marine resources (coral reefs, sedimentary rock, etc.) (Liu et al , 2012; Tsaur and Wang, 2007) and well-organized scuba diving training centers. Taiwanese recreational scuba divers are used as the invited samples for this study.…”

Pivotal Issues of Water-Based Tourism in Worldwide Literature

“…On the other hand, some scholars have pointed out that the literature of water-based tourism does not only focus on tourist recreation purpose, but examines these places as locations for sporting activities, such as canoeing, rowing, surfing, and others [12][13][14][15]. Other studies are related to health therapy and medical treatment [16,17], and spa products [18].…”