Urban Forest Visit Motivation Scale: Development and Validation

Due to the importance of the positive effects of urban forests on urban dwellers and the limitations of prior studies, which have mainly dealt with motivations involving rural or tourism-oriented forests, this study aims to develop a scale of visit motivation for an urban forest specifically as a way to deal with more diverse and specific motivations. The first step is to develop a draft version of the Urban Forest Visit Motivation Scale (UFVMS) through experts’ discussions of important factors from prior studies and the analysis of Big Data. Then, to confirm the reliability and validity of these items, 878 valid data of visitors of urban forests living in Seoul and Incheon were collected to conduct EFA and CFA to validate the final version of the scale. As a result of factor analysis, seven dimensions (Experience Activities, Healing and Rest, Health, Environmental Experience, Daily Leisure, Family, Eco-Friendly) with 24 items for the UFVMS were drawn after deleting 5 items that had a low standard regression weight on CFA or were unsuitable for the characteristics of a dimension. The results of this study are expected to provide academic and practical implications for urban forest visit motivation. In particular, unlike common purposes such as healing and health, the results indicate that the purpose of daily leisure-related activities is a notable factor of visiting urban forests, showing that there is also a high need for good-quality facilities such as food suppliers, toilets, and so on. This study will contribute to the academic development of research on UFVMS and the practical development for managers of urban forests in terms of planning a better management of the urban forest with a full understanding of visitors’ motivations. This improving management will contribute to the development of the social sustainability of urban citizens while giving various benefits.