Texas landowner involvement, interest, and obstacles in operating nature tourism enterprises /
The Situation Texas residents have limited public land available to participate in the nature tourism activities they enjoy. Since the majority of Texas land is in private hands, landowners have an opportunity to generate revenue and provide a needed opportunity for tourists and recreationists. Thi...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2003.
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| Summary: | The Situation Texas residents have limited public land available to participate in the nature tourism activities they enjoy. Since the majority of Texas land is in private hands, landowners have an opportunity to generate revenue and provide a needed opportunity for tourists and recreationists. This coupled with the fact that many landowners involved in agricultural or livestock production are struggling to survive creates a situation that can benefit both Texas landowners and Texans active in nature tourism activities. The Survey Altogether, 5579 farming/ranching Texas landowners were approached about completing the 2001 June Agricultural Survey including the Recreation and Tourism Survey component. Of this, 696 chose not to be interviewed, leaving 4883 who did respond and provided useable surveys. This produced a response rate of 87% (Shafer et al., 2001). Landowners were asked questions about their involvement in, interest in, and obstacles associated with a nature tourism business. The Results Involvement Of the landowners inteniewed, 8% (400) indicated that they operated 412 recreation and tourism enterprises. They included 94.2% (388) hunting-based enterprises, 2.4% (10) trail-based enterprises, 1.5% (6) wildlife-based enterprises, 0.2% (1) dude and guest ranch enterprise, 0.5% (2) working ranch enterprises, and 1.2% (5) fishing-based enterprises. Obstacles The top three obstacles of landowners operating nature tourism enterprises were liability issues, insurance issues, and water not available. The top three obstacles for landowners not operating nature tourism enterprises were lack of interest, value privacy too much, and not enough land in operation or land was rented. Interest Of the landowners operating nature tourism enterprises, 75% were at least somewhat interested in continuing. Only 7% of the landowners not operating nature tourism enterprises were interested in starting an enterprise, but that represents about 342 Texas landowners. Conclusions Involvement Are there certain regions in Texas that had a greater level of involved respondents? The highest concentrations of nature tourism enterprises were in a corridor running through central Texas going North to the Oklahoma border. Are there concentrations of activity types in certain regions of the state? Forty percent of non-hunting activities were found in three districts: Northern High Plains, Edwards Plateau, and The Lower Valley. Individual activities were less concentrated. Are recreation and tourism enterprises found in greater quantities in counties immediately surrounding large population centers (150, 000+)? It appeared that counties within cela̐in ecological regions that have a large population center somewhat nearby (approximately less than 2 driving hours) had the highest numbers of enterprises. Obstacles Were certain obstacles, identified by involved respondents, concentrated in particular regions of the state? More than fifty percent of the districts identified liability and financial issues as the top barriers of respondents operating nature tourism enterprises. Are particular obstacles, identified by non-involved respondents, concentrated in certain regions of the state? No district identified financial and marketing/education issues as their overall top barrier to getting started for landowners not operating nature tourism enterprises. Interest Is interest in continuing/starting a nature tourism enterprise linked to location? From the Edwards Plateau down through South Texas the average district interest level in continuing to operate a nature tourism enterprise was around 94%. Were certain districts more or less likely to have interest in starting/continuing recreation and tourism enterprises? There were no districts where both involved and non-involved landowners were not interested in starting/continuing a recreation and tourism enterprise. Are respondents operating certain activity types more interested in continuing? Seventy-six percent of the hunting enterprises were somewhat to very interested in continuing. Seventy-five percent of the non-hunting enterprises were somewhat to very interested in continuing. |
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| Item Description: | Lacking vita and abstract. "Major subject: Agriculture". Received one stacks copy only. |
| Physical Description: | v, 61 leaves : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaf 20). |