Introduction

Since January 1, 2001, Labor Standards Law (2000) has been taken effect officially in Taiwan. Under the law, there are two-day weekend and the labor hours are reduced to 84 hours for two weeks. As a result, the public is going to enjoy 144 days of vacation per year. The time for leisure and recreation has increased substantially. In addition, GNP in Taiwan reached $12,941 in US dollars (Executive Yuan, 2001). As shown in Table 1, Taiwanese residents have not only the wealth but also the time when the Physical Labor Datum Law took effect.

Table 1 GNP per resident in Taiwan （ US dollars ）

Moreover, Gross National Product has reached a total of $2,883 hundred million (Executive Yuan, 2002a) which rose in rank to the developed country. As far as for the employment structure, the publication of Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, R. O. C. Taiwan Region Human Resources Statistic Outcome (Executive Yuan, 2002b), reported that service industry occupied 57.28% surpassing the total of industry of agriculture and fishery. A separate statistic, Report on the Survey of Family Income & Expenditure in Taiwan Area of the Republic China (Executive Yuan, 2000b) , pointed out that consumers expanded 13.51% of the income on entertainment, education, and culture service in 2000. All of the above has reflected the living qualities of Taiwanese residents.

In addition, based on a profile of Taiwanese public use of the time, an Investigation of Taiwan Region Social Development Tendency (Executive Yuan, 2000a) the average time to spend on physiology needs (sleep, dining, cleaning, dressing and makeup) was 10 hours and 54 minutes in April and May in 2000. It was 10 minutes higher than in 1994 and 21 minutes higher than 1987. On the other hand, restraint time, such as work, school, commute, housework and shopping, was seven hours and one minute. It was 35 and 27 minutes lower than in 1987 and 1994. However, Taiwanese had an average of 6 hours and five minutes in free time, which was 15 and 17 minutes higher than in 1987 and 1994. This has proved that Taiwanese residents began to pay more attention to promote a better living quality. Comparing to Japan, time for physiology needs was 22 minutes shorter whereas restrain and free time was 17 minutes and 4 minutes higher than Taiwan since Japanese residents has average of one hour less sleep and 22 minutes more in housework. In Australia and Canada, restraint time was 14 and 23 minutes more than in Taiwan; however, these two countries had an average of one hour of working time, but the housework and shopping was one hour 48 minutes and one hour and 25 minutes higher shown in Chart 1

Chart 1 An average living hour of residents of age 15 and above

Time: hour and minute

Source: An Investigation of Taiwan Region Social Development Tendency, Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, R. O. C (2000a). Taipei: Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, R. O. C

The investigation also indicated 72.2% of Taiwanese residents of age 15 and higher reported participating in physical activities during leisure time which was a little lower than 74.5% in Japan. More, the participation rate for physical activity was 74.2% in male and 70.3% in female. Three common forms of physical activities practiced by 51.7% of Taiwanese residents were jogging, walking, and quick walking. 21.6% exercised everyday and 58.4% reported doing the above activities weekly. The next common physical activities were mountain climbing and hiking about 32.6%. Of which, only 4.4% reported participating daily and 26% weekly. Depending on age, regular exercise and age had an opposite trend in Taiwanese residents. 85.8% and 48.4% of Taiwanese residents age 65 and above reported jogging, walking, and quick walking as well as mountain climbing and hiking. However, the rate dropped to 50% to 20% for age of 50 and under. This has indicated the need to form a habit of regular and sustained physical exercise.

Furthermore, many research and studies related to exercise participation or recreation pointed out that there were only a small number of Taiwanese residents participating in regular exercise. For example, Executive Yuan Physical Education council published a study in May 1999 (Chen & Yan, 1999) indicated there were very few residents participated in regular physical activities even though there were over 90% of the people reported engaging in recreational activities. School education and public policy needed to improve and cultivate the public’s knowledge in utilizing time for physical activities especially Taiwanese society was generally work oriented.

Studies related in desire in physical activities, Liu and Wang (1999) believed residential area, gender, age, occupation, and education were related to types of physical activities, time, and location. The most desired physical activities were badminton, table tennis, bowling, jogging, and cycling whereas the most engaged activities were badminton, swimming, jogging, basketball, mountain climbing, billiards, bowling, quick walking, and folk dancing. Time for participating physical activities was before eight am and after six pm and locations were community park, riverside park, school stadium or sports ground, and at home.

Similar research and studies reflected that behavior, desire, and conscious of Taiwanese resident’s physical activities were limited to facilities and locations, which should be further researched by the department of physical education. Past research pointed out the relations among desire and conscious of physical activities, age, gender, economic status, and recreation skills needed to be studied. How to evaluate and understand the above relations so results can be applied practically is valuable to academic research as well as policy making in the government.

The purpose of the research is to investigate the preferences, routines, conscious and opinion of Taiwanese residents in physical activities related to government policy in developing physical education and recreation activities.

The scope of the research included 25 counties and cities in Taiwan (Jilong city, Taipei county, Taoyuan county, Yilan county, Hsinchu city, Hsinchu county, Taichung city, Taichung county, Mioli county, Zhanghua county, Nantou county, Yunlin county, Jiayi city, Jiayi county, Tainan city, Tainan county, Kaoxiong county, Pintung county, Penghu county, Taidong county, Hualien county, Taipei city, Kaoxiong city, Jinmen county, and Lianjiang county. Subjects are Taiwanese residents age 15 and above with physical capacity. The study also utilized computer-assisted telephone interviewing system to conduct interviews.

Literature Review

Physical Activity Consciousness

French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist, Rene Descartes, said “Cogito Ergo Sum – Thinking Accounts For Being”. Therefore, the meaning of consciousness speaks for itself.

Hobson (1994), a professor at Harvard Medical School, indicated consciousness is the brain becomes aware of certain information. The individual consciousness changes its focus or goes into different levels when the brain pays attention to or experiences different things at the time. There are six levels of consciousness: unconsciousness, subconsciousness, marginal consciousness, focal consciousness, unconsciousness, and pre-conscious (Bernstein, Clarke-Stewart, Roy, Srull & Wickens, 1994).

• Unconsciousness is how individual not knowingly regards to things in the environments. For example, an individual is unaware of one’s own heartbeat or pulse.
• Subconsciousness is an individual with experience of consciousness but indistinct of the content of the consciousness.
• Marginal Consciousness: an individual has experience of consciousness, but don’t have enough clarity about its content.
• Focal Consciousness is what an individual perceive explicit consciousness when one focuses on something without distraction.
• Unconsciousness is the emotion, desire, fear or complicated experience underneath an individual’s conscious mind. Even though unconsciousness is controlled by the consciousness, an individual is not aware of it.
• Pre-Conscious: unconsciousness is a point supported by scholars of psychoanalysis. However, they also believe that between consciousness and unconsciousness lays another level: pre-conscious. The major difference between pre-conscious and unconsciousness is that the overstock experience of the unconsciousness cannot be recall by an individual whereas experiences in pre-subconscious can. Through the process of psychoanalysis, an individual is able to recall an experience from unconsciousness to consciousness, which needs to pass through pre-conscious.

Whether a conscious state exists in an individual depend on three aspects: reaction, recognition, capabilities and character of moral integrity (Darley, Glucksberg & Kinchla, 1990). The nature of consciousness is in motion, a process and exists at present (Edelman, 1989). Consciousness allows unity in experiences (Dennett, 1991). In the capability of controlling consciousness, Jacoby, Lindsay and Toth (1992) pointed out the main function of consciousness process was to allow an individual’s ability to control an environment in order to reach a goal. When expected outside force disturbs behaviors of a preplanned goal, the capability of controlling consciousness was going to emerge noticeably.

For the time being, there is not a clear defined definition and boundary of sport consciousness. Therefore, the research synthesized the above literatures to provide an operative definition as the following:

“An individual regards to sports related activity to make use of mental phenomenon, such as senses, consciousness, reflection, and remembrance to detect one’s intrinsic and extrinsic conditions of body and mind in relation to interests, habits, values as well as opinions on development of physical activity policy.”

Classification of Physical Activities

To classify each everyday activity as sports, recreation, play, physical activity, or sports activity is not a simple task since the participant can decide or plan the mode of physical activity depending on people, affairs, time, and location. Bucher and Krotee (1998) classified the scope of physical activities from play, recreation, community activity, school physical education and sport, sport clubs, amateur and Olympic Sports, intercollegiate sport championships to the professional competition. The above physical activities have many differences among each other. Other classifications of physical activity or sports are open and close, individual and team, as well as professional and amateur. It can also be classified into three categories: recreation, prized and professional. Furthermore, some scholars classify physical activity in absolute sports or whether the activity requires equipment and facility. If to classify physical activity by its goal, it can be categorized into professional, educational and recreational. Moreover, it can be defined by the concepts: broad sense as in competing with another person or narrower sense as in self-striving. In addition, it can be limited to a race or competition to be totally distinguished from physical education or training.

Research Method
Research Structure

The purpose of the research is to understand Taiwanese residents preference, habit, value and view on government policy making regarding to physical activity based on gender, age, education, occupation, family monthly income and location. Therefore, the research focused on demographic statistics and aimed at analyzing among variables. The research structure is shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Research Structure

Research Process

The process of the research is to decide a research topic before finding out research motivation and research subjects. After deciding the research purpose and scope, literatures related to consciousness, physical activity and physical activity participation are gathered before drafting the research method. The Table 3 is the research process.

Table 3 Research Process

Research Subjects

To conform to the research requirement and understand indeed the consciousness of the physical activities in Taiwanese people, the research subjects include Taiwanese residents of age 15 and above with physical capability in 25 different counties and cities. The sample size is the population of these 25 different counties and cities in 2001. However, the sample chosen in this research is limited to the sampling method, which could not reach the same accuracy of the random sampling. To minimize the error in the survey and increase the representativeness of the sample group, the samples chosen in the research reach 99% confidence level and 2% error. Based on the above condition, the formula is used to calculate the number of samples needed for this research, which are 4,161 samples. Therefore, the research planned at least 6,000 valid samples as the goal.

Sampling formula ：

Research Tool

The research gathers data through a questionnaire designed and developed by the researcher, the Investigation of the Consciousness of Taiwanese Residents Questionnaire. The questions in the questionnaire cover the subject’s interest, habit and value in participation of the physical activities, opinions on physical activities policy as well as background information.

Based on the research goal and its scope, preliminary questions were initiated. Later, the research team examined each question to make sure the wording was clear and comprehensible as well as whether the language used were able to be comprehend by subjects with various backgrounds. After revising, questions were organized into a first draft questionnaire to be reviewed by seven experts in the field from different universities and colleges in Taiwan to see if the questionnaire conformed to the goal of the research. Moreover, Physical Education Committee in Executive Yuan invited various experts and specialists as well as the research team to again modify and provide specific suggestions on September 16, 2002.

After the above revision, the research team tested the questionnaire using FJS-CATI system on September 24, 2002. The subjects were selected from 25 different counties and cities. There were 188 subjects with 94 males and 94 females and of these 188 subjects, 107 agreed to be retested after five days to ensure the validity of the questionnaire. From the pilot test and pre-samples, the questionnaire did not need further revision. In addition, comparing the first and the second interviews by the same 107 subjects, every question has an identical rate between 80.37% (86 subjects have parallel answers) and 100.00% (107 subjects have parallel answers). Therefore, the process of developing the questionnaire and drafting the questions include not only multiple revisions and examinations of sports experts and professionals as well as investigation by the government, which gathered experts from various backgrounds, but also pilot-testing to ensure the validity and effectiveness of the questionnaire to make certain it indeed matches the purpose of the research. As for the effectiveness of the contents, results from the first and second survey are consistent which also represented the validity of the questionnaire.

Results and Discussion

The purpose of the research is to investigate the preferences, routines, values and opinion of Taiwanese residents in physical activities related to government policy in developing physical education and recreation activities. Subjects are Taiwanese residents age 15 and above with physical capacity. The study also utilizes computer-assisted telephone interviewing system to conduct interviews. There are total of 6,000 subjects in the study; however, within one month, there were 11,688 subjects contacted. Of 11,688 subjects, 4,014 subjects refused the interview and 7,674 accepted the interview. The success rate is 65.66%.

The analysis of the background information of Taiwanese residents

In 7,674 subjects, the number of male and female subjects are 3,755 (48.93%) and 3,919 (51.07%). The age group of “36 – 45” has the most subjects which is 1,739 (22.66%), and next group is “23 -35” which is 1,668 (21.74%). As for the education background, “college and above” has the most subjects, 2,336 (30.44%) and the “high school” comes in second, 2,332 (30.39%). For the category of occupation, “unemployed” has the most subjects, 1,984 (25.85%) and “administrative staff” comes in second, 1,024 (13.34%). The family income of “40,001~50,000” has the most subjects, 1,228 (16.00%) and “50,001~60,000” comes in second, 1,106 (14, 41%). The last category is the location, which “Taichung city” has the most interviewed subjects, 1,230 (16.03%) and “Taipei city” is the second with 1,100 (14.33%).

Chart 2 Background Information

Annotation: A = Military personnel; B = administrative executives, business owners and managers; C = professionals; D = technician and professional assistant; E = administrative staff; F = service workers and sales; G = agriculture, forestry, fishery workers; H = skilled workers and related; I = mechanics and operators; J = non technical and physical labor; K = unemployed; L = students; M = others; N = non response.

The analysis of Taiwanese interests in physical activity

• The research result showed there were 7,575 (98.71) subjects participated in physical activity in the past three months and 99 (1.29%) subjects did not.
• In general, the most participated activities by 7,575 subjects in the past three months were walking (35.75%), jogging (29.21%), basketball (21.91%), hiking (12.82%), excursion (12.57%), and mountain climbing (12.36%).
• Of the 7,575 subjects, the reasons for participating physical activities were “to create health and strength” (40.79%), “interest and mood switch” (22.96%), “for work or school” (21.82%).
• On the other hand, 99 subjects reported the top three reasons for not participating physical activities: “too much work in school, housework, or kinds to exercise” (72.73%), “no particular reason” (38.38%), “no opportunity” (32.32%).
• When asked whether to watch sports programs or competition, 67.68% of 7,674 subjects reported to watch sports programs or competition regularly whereas 32.31% did not.
• The most enjoyed watched sports programs or competitions by 5,194 subjects were jogging (32.31%), baseball (26.67%), succor (22.66%), basketball (19.60%) and mountain climbing (15.09%).
• 93.11% reported watching sport programs and competitions, 50.27% reported from television, 36.79% listen from the radio and 19.98% reported researching from the World Wide Web.
• Last, when asked about the most anticipated physical activities in the past or at the presents, subjects reported walking (35.65%), jogging (29.71%), basketball (21.72%), mountain climbing (13.06%), and hiking (12.71%).

The analysis of physical activity tendency in Taiwanese residents

• 4,347 out of 7,575 subjects reported having regular physical activity which was 57.39% and 3,228 out of 7,575 reported not having regular physical activity which was 42.61%.
• When asked about the number of times in physical activity per week, 3,169 out of 7,575 subjects reported “once a week”, 22.77% of the 7,575 reported “twice a week” and 12.25% reported “three times a week.
• 47.72 % of 7,575 subjects reported exercise one hour or less each time. 30.01% reported one to two hours of exercise each time. 1,108 subjects exercised two to three hours each session and 579 subjects exercised three hours and more each time.
• When asked about the intensity of the physical activity, out of 7,575 subjects, 2,606 (34.40%) chose “moderate intensity”. 2,480 (32.74%) subjects reported “low intensity” and 1,570 (20.73%) subjects “moderate to high intensity”. 468 (6.18%) subjects reported “intense” and 451 (5.95%) subjects reported “mid-intense”.
• 2,151 out of 7,575 subjects reported doing physical activity in the “early morning” and 26.83% of 7,575 reported “afternoon” as the time of the day for physical activity. Next, 1,668 subjects reported “morning” and 1,369 subjects reported “during the night”. “Noon time” had 355 subjects.
• When asked about the partner, “alone or no partner” received 2,654 out of 7,575 subjects. Next was “a family member” with 1,881 subjects, “friends” was next with 1,402 subjects, “classmates” with 750 subjects, “colleague” had 412 subjects, “neighbors” had 343 subjects, and finally “no particular partners” was the last with 133 subjects.
• The top three locations mentioned by the subjects for physical activities were “park”, “sports field or stadium in school” and “private facility” with 37.28%, 35.08%, and 26.14% of 7.575 subjects.
• The percentage of subjects in each categories in the time for traveling to locations for physical activities were 63.74% for “10 minutes or less”, 23.52% for “11 to 30 minutes”, 8.17% for “31 to 60 minutes”, and 4.75% for “60 minutes and above”.
• When asking about the fee related to participating physical activity, 87.27% of 7,575 subjects reported “no” and 12.73% reported “yes”.
• The channels to receive information related to physical activity or exercise were “televisions” with 62.64%, “newspaper or magazines” 21.78%, “internet” with 8.58%, “radio” with 6.03% and “others” with 0.96%.
• For the item of “what are some of the information to be obtained?”. 53.52% of 7,575 reported “national and international competitions”, 34.11% reported “exercise guidance or instructions”, 8.71% reported “physical education policy” and the last was “others” with 0.66%.

The analysis of values regarding to physical activity in Taiwanese residents

The first five values regarding to physical activity in 7,674 subjects were “health”, “team cohesion”, “stand by the rules”, “sports spirit” and “enjoyment”. The percentages were as the following: 39.25%, 13.79%, 13.55%, 12.97% and 12.05%.

The content analysis of opinions on government’s developments of physical activity policy

There are four open-ended questions in this category and 7.674 subjects. The questions focused on the opinions related to development of physical activity policy. The researcher summarized the reply of the first three questions “increase sports facility and fields”, “promote the concepts of exercise and health”, “open school sports facility and fields”, “increase professional sports consultants”, “offer free exercise instruction courses” and “offer sports competitions”. There were also answers that weighted less and categorized as “the others”. For the questions four, the content of the reply focused on “increase equipments of the sports field and facility”, “develop specific sports”, “hold international competition”, “future plan for the elite athletes”, “invite outstanding coaches”, and “practical physical education from childhood”. Other single answers were categorized as “the others”.

The analysis of these four questions is as the following.

• To promote physical activity for the whole people, what kind of services do you think the government should enhance to increase your interest in participation?

After analyzing the content of the answers, the research discovered that to increase the interest in participation of physical activity, the government needed to “increase sports facility and fields”. There were 2,290 similar replies. Also 1,749 subjects believed that “ promote the concepts of exercise and health” was the key to increase interests in participating physical activity. Moreover, 1,611 subjects thought that government needed to “open school facility and fields” to increase interests in physical activity. 807 subjects mentioned that “increase professional exercise consultants”, 609 subjects believed “offer free courses on exercise guidance” and 551 subjects considered that government needed to “offer more sports competitions” to increase people’s interests in physical activity.

In the end, there were 57 subjects mentioned “not clear about government’s policy”, “never thought about it”, “no time for such matters”, “strengthen economy”, “more promotion”, “no interests to understand government policy”, “financial support”, “no opinion”, “more community activities”, “no need to develop policy”, “not important”, “stable life”, “traffic course needs to be clear”, “more teams”, “more trees”, “no ideas”, “plan more one-way street” and etc. All of the above answers were categorized into “the others” and it was 0.74% of 7,674 subjects.

• What are some of the services need to be provided by the government to increase your frequency of participating physical activity?

After content analysis, the research discovered that on the issue of promoting physical activity for the whole people, “increase exercise facility and field” was the key to increase the frequency of participation. Answers similar to or related to “increase exercise facility and field” received 30.04% of 7,674 subjects. Also, 1,731 subjects believed that the key was in “promote the concepts of exercise and health” and 1,573 subjects mentioned, “open school sports facility and fields”. Moreover, 786 subjects and 613 subjects mentioned, “increase professional exercise consultant” and “more sports competitions”. 603 subjects believed “free courses on exercise instructions” as the keys to promoting frequency of exercise participation.

Last, 63 other replies in this questions were categorized into “the others” with 0.82%: “not clear about government policy”, “no opinion”, “strengthen economy”, “no time to think about this matter”, “more promotion”, “no interests in understanding government policy”, “financial support”, “no need to development this kind of policy”, “never thought about it”, “depends on individual interest”, “plant more trees”, “plan more one-way street”, “employment for all”, “no need for exercise because it is not important”, “don’t understand the question”, “no interests at the present time”, “need a partner”, “not important”, “have not thought about it”, “increase welfare so people will have time”, and etc.

• What are some of the service need to be done for you to form a regular habit of doing physical activity?

There were 2,351 subjects (30.64%) voiced opinions similar to “increase sports facilities and equipments”. Moreover, 1,753 subjects believed that the government needed to “promote the concept of health and physical activity” for the public to form a regular habit of doing physical activity. “Open school sports facility and fields” received 20.39% in this question. 745 subjects (9.71%) mentioned that “increase professional exercise consultants” was the key to help the public form regular exercise habit. In addition, 528 subjects believed the government needed to “hold more sports competitions”.

Finally, replies such as “not clear about government policy”, “no time for such a question”, “strengthen economy”, “no opinion”, “improve community center”, “enhance promotion”, “training of sports talents”, “no interest in understanding government policy”, “no need to develop policy”, “no interest at present”, “not important”, “Exercise when one feels like it”, “need a partner”, “transform one’s life style”, “depends on the situation”, “initiate physical activity for all”, “depends on one’s desire” and etc are classified into “the others”, which covers 1.04%.

• What do you think it needs to be done the most to improve the standard of physical education and sports?

To improve the standard of physical education and sports, 2,351 subjects (30.64%) mentioned “future plan for the elite athletes”. Also, 1,684 subjects believed the governments should “increase equipments of the sports field and facility” and 1,598 subjects would like to see “practical physical education from childhood”. Moreover, “develop specific sports” and “hold international competition as well as “invite outstanding coaches” received 9.59%, 8.50%, and 7.74% in this question.

Last, 59 subjects provided replies such as “not clear about the government policy”, “no opinion’, “never thought about it”, “haven’t paid too much attention to it”, “more encouragement to the athletes”, “financial aid from the government”, “value athletes”, “increase the public’s interests”, “change government policy” and etc. The above replies are classified into “the others” which received 0.77% in this question.

Reasons for refusing the interview

There were 4,014 subjects refused the interview in this research. The reasons provided were as the following: “no time” with 78.77%, “not in the mood to do the interview” with 6.43%, “don’t understand the meaning of the questions” with 5.78%, “questions are too long and complicated” with 4.91%, “not interested in this research” with 2.67% and “questions involved personal information with 1.44%.

Discussion

This study interviewed 11.688 subjects, and 4,014 out of 11,688 subjects refused to be interviewed whereas 7,674 subjects accepted it. The success rate is 65.66%. According to Babbie (1998), when adopting questionnaire interview as a tool for collecting data, the success rate has to reach 50% to be applicable. When the success rate reaches 60%, it is considered positive. When the success rate reached above 70%, it is considered very positive. The success rate in this research is between “positive” and “very positive”. Therefore, it is suitable for further data analysis.

The result of the study indicated 90% of the subjects participated in the physical activity in the past three months. This result is similar to and even higher than the researched by Chen and Yang (1999), which Excutive Yuan, PE Committee authorized the investigation. In general, the top six most participated physical activities are: walking, jogging, basketball, hiking, excursion and mountain climbing. Many researchers in Taiwan (Chen and Yang, 1999; Excutive Yuan, 2000a; Executive Yuan, PE Committee, 2000) reached similar outcome. At the same time, Australian researchers Darcy and Veal (1996), American researchers Vries and Bruin (1996), Cordell, McDonald, Lewis, Miles, Martin and Bason (1996) all pointed out “walking” is the most common physical activity of the general public and other physical activities are focus on outdoor recreation.

Moreover, the main reason for physical activity is “to create strength and heath”, which resembles the research result of Clough, Shepherd and Maughan (1989). The reason for the resemblance is probably related to the illness and pressure from the civilization. People are trying to seek mental and physical health and to improve strength through physical activity. Furthermore, the main reason for no physical activities in the past three months is “too busy in school, housework, children bearing so there isn’t any time”. 72.73% indicated the above reason for not having physical activity, which demonstrated time is an influential factor in affecting the participation of physical activity.

There are about 70% of the subjects watched sports competition or related programs. The top five most watched competition and related programs are jogging, baseball, soccer, basketball and mountain climbing. The result of the research also pointed out Taiwanese public is deeply influenced by television, which is the most utilized when enjoying the sports competition and related programs. Jogging is the top watched program could be caused by that jogging is also the most participated activity. From January 2002 to September 2002, Taiwan hosted 22 various activities related to running including many international race and Iron Man Triathlon. Therefore, jogging is the most watched activity. In addition, the fever of 2002 World Cup in Korea and World Baseball Championship hosted in Taiwan resulted highly exposed baseball and soccer. All of the above reinforce the results of the research to a certain degree. Moreover, the top six most wanted to participate activity in the future are also related to the most participated activity. These activities are walking, jogging, basketball, mountain climbing, hiking, and excursion. This indicated that people are more interested in outdoor recreation activities. Also, this also revealed that people’s immobility in the physical activity and the unwillingness to change the engaged activity.

There are only about 60% of subjects have regular habit of doing physical activity. Comparing to the study prepared by Chen and Yang (1999), it has grow substantially. 40% out of the 60% exercised once a week and 50% of the subjects reported one hour or less for each session. The intensity is “moderate” to “low”. Also, the time for physical activity or exercise focuses on “early morning” and “afternoon”, and subjects indicated not having partners. The locations are centered on “park” or “school facility and field” where only require “10 minutes or less” in traveling. The research also revealed that as much as 90% of the subjects pay no regular fee for doing physical activity. All of the resulted are related to the most participated physical activity. In the meanwhile, 60% subjects received most of the physical activity related information from television.

In the analysis of values toward physical activity, subjects revealed the top five values are health, team cohesion, obeying rules, sports spirit, and recreation. This indicated the main concept in physical activity is established on the premise of “health”. Simultaneously, influenced by the engraving impressions of the sports, subjects also pointed out values such as, team cohesion, obeying rules, and sports spirits that are related to sports competitions.

Subjects believed that to increase people’s interest, frequency and participation in physical activity, the government needed to “increase sports field and facility”. Moreover, government needed to provide “future plan for elite athletes” in order to increase standards of physical education. Since the results reveal the demand for sports field and facility and to improve the standards of physical education, providing a foreseeable future is the first step.

Last, 4,014 subjects pronounced “no time” to reject the interview. The rejection rate is around 80%, which could be caused by the time for conducting phone interview from six to 9 in the evening. This period of time is usually for dinner or television. Therefore, in the future research, it is important to broaden the interview time frame.

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the most important constraints facing recreational skiers, and profile recreational skiers according to their levels of participation and demographic characteristics. The sample of the study consisted of two hundred and sixty eight (N=268) recreational skiers from a skiing resort in Greece. The results indicated that the most important constraints against participation in winter skiing were related to economic and lack of time problems. Participants were then categorised according to their level of participation (infrequent, moderate, and frequent participants). Comparisons in terms of demographic characteristics indicated that younger and single people participated more in skiing activities than older and married ones. Furthermore, males participated more than females. Comparisons in terms of the perception of constraints indicated several differences with the most striking on the item reading ‘skiing is not among my priorities’. The managerial implications of the results are discussed.

Introduction

Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into groups of consumers who share similar characteristics. Segmentation is a widely used marketing strategy by marketers today. Four main bases for market segmentation have been suggested: demographic, geographic, psycho graphic and behavioural. Demographic segmentation involves the division of consumers into groups based on variables such as gender, age, family size, income, occupation and religion, while geographic segmentation includes variables such as nation, counties, states etc. Demographic and geographic segmentation are the most widely and easily most applied strategies by marketers and practitioners. Psychographic segmentation includes the division of consumers into groups based on social class, lifestyle, and personality characteristics, while in behavioural segmentation consumers are divided to form groups based on knowledge, attitudes, uses or responses to services. The value of benefit segmentation has been indicated by Hendricks (2004) who applied it in recreation participants. Involvement profiles have been used as a way of behavioural segmentation by Dimanche, Havitz & Howard (1993) in a tourism context, while Havitz, Dimanche & Bogle (1994) applied it in a fitness context. It is clear from all these studies that not all participants are the same with respect to their interests, attitudes and needs.

In the present study we used a combination of behavioural and psychographic segmentation in order to classify recreational skiers. We originally classified consumers into groups according to the frequency of doing ski (behavioural segmentation), and we then profiled each group by examining a) demographic characteristic and b) perceived constraints on skiing participation in terms of different frequency of skiing participation.

Theoretical Background

Leisure Constraints

Leisure constraint research has been a very popular topic in the leisure literature the last two decades. This is due to the theoretical developments made by key papers such as those written by Crawford & Godbey’s (1987) Crawford, Jackson & Godbey’s (1991) Jackson & Rucks (1993) and they great applicability of constraint research data (Alexandris & Carroll, 1999). A variety of studies have successfully indicated how leisure constraint data can help practitioners and policy -makers to more effectively design and promote sport and leisure services (Kay & Jackson, 1991).

Constraints have been defined as “factors that are assumed by researchers and perceived or experienced by individuals to limit the formation of leisure preferences and to inhibit or prohibit participation in leisure activities” (Jackson, 1991, p. 276). It is widely accepted today that constraints are classified into intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural. This categorization was introduced by Crawford and Godbey (1987) and adopted by the majority of researchers in this area. Intrapersonal are internal constraints related to individual psychological states and attributes. Examples of intrapersonal constraints include perceived skill levels, perceived fitness levels, perceived confidence, stress and anxiety. Interpersonal constraints are related to lack of social interaction and social isolation. Examples of interpersonal constraints include inability to find partners to participate with, social isolation, and social disapproval. Finally, structural constraints are external ones. They are related to unavailability or resources to participate in leisure activities. Examples of structural constraints include lack of money, problems related to facilities and services and accessibility issues.

Studies on leisure constraints have been conducted in a variety of leisure, recreation and sport setting, as well as different countries and populations. In the area of sport tourism, leisure constraints research is growing but it is still limited. Constraints have been investigated among nature-based tourists (Nyaupane, Morais & Graefe, 2004), skiers (Williams & Fidgeon, 2000), fans of soccer teams who travel to other countries (Kim & Chalip, 2004), tourists with physical disability problems (Daniels, Drogin-Rodgers & Wiggins, 2005) and destination tourists (Dellaert, Ettema & Lindh, 1998).

Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this study were: a) to investigate the most important constraints facing recreational skiers; b) profile recreational skiers according to their levels of participation, demographic characteristics and perception of constraints.

Methodology

Participants and Procedures

Data were collected by means of a site survey, conducted in a skiing resort, which was located at the biggest ski centre in South Greece. Recreational skiers were approached and asked to fill the questionnaires while relaxing in the cafeteria of the resort after skiing. Two hundred and sixty eight skiers were approached, and two hundred and twenty (N=268) of them accepted to fill the questionnaires, achieving a response rate of 88%.

Three demographic variables were included as follows: gender (males and females), the age of the respondents, which was coded in three categories (18-25, 26-35, 36-65), and level of education (primary education, secondary education and university graduates). The demographic characteristics of the sample are presented in Table 1.

Skiers were also categorized according to their level or participation: infrequent, moderate, and frequent participants.

Research Instruments

Constraints Scale

An adjusted version of the leisure constraints questionnaire (Alexandris & Carroll, 1997a, 1997b) was used in order to investigate the perception of constraints on skiing participation. This was a twenty six item instrument, with was developed and standardized by the Greek population (Alexandris & Carroll, 1997a). It was reported by Alexandris and Carroll (1977b) to have good psychometric properties (Cronbach’s alpha for the whole scale = .85, all items with factor loadings >.40, and Cronbach’s’ alpha >.60 in each factor). Furthermore, it was tested against demographic groups, and showed adequate discriminatory power. This scale was adapted to recreational skiing constraints after conducting interviews with six experienced skiers and five ski instructors. This procedure led to the addition of one more constraint reading ‘problems related to weather conditions’. Respondents were asked to evaluate the importance of each of the twenty three statements as limiting or prohibiting factors for their participation in skiing, using a seven point Likert scale ranking from very important (7) to not important (1). The internal reliability of the whole ski constraints scale was successfully (Cronbach’s alpha = .88).

Results

The demographic characteristics of the sample are presented in Table 1.

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See Table1 on Page 2

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The top-ten constraints for the whole population

The ten top highest scored constraints were: the three financial related constraints C19/M=4.6, C20/M3.6, and C21/M=3.4), the three lack of time related constraints (lack of time because of work / studies, family or social obligations, C1/M=4.8, C2/M=2.9, and C3/M=3.1), the two lack of partner related constraints (C22/M=3.2, C23/M=3.0), problems related to the weather conditions (C16/M=3.3), and the lacks of skills problems (‘no effective ski technique’, C8/M=4.6). These results are presented in Table 2.

Levels of skiing participation.

In order to examine the frequency of skiing participation, the proportions of participants who fell into the three categories (infrequent, moderate, and frequent participation) were calculated. The results indicated that there was a certain group of individuals (32.5%) who were shown to be only ‘infrequently’ participants in winter skiing (one to four times per winter season). The second subgroup (54.5%) participated ‘moderately’ in skiing (five to 9 times per year). Finally 13.3% of the respondents stated that they participated ‘frequently’ (more than 10 times per winter season).

The top-ten constraints by the level of participation

Generally speaking the lack of time related constraints were cited as the most important ones for all the three participation groups. Among the few differences, the item reading “skiing is not among my priorities” was included only in the top-ten list of the ‘infrequently’ participation group, and the constraints reading ‘I don’t like the ski resort environment” and “I do not feel safe” were included only within the ‘frequently’ level top ten list.

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See Table2 on Page 2

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Constraints and levels of participation.

Univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences in thirteen constraints among the three different participation levels. The most significant difference was found in constraint C12 ‘skiing is not on my priorities’, F (2,235) = 29.4, p< .001), followed by the C8 constraint ‘no effective ski technique’, F (2,230) = 18.3, p< .001), and the C25 constraint ‘my family doesn’t like skiing’, F (2,234) = 13.2, p< .001). Each of the significant ANOVAs was followed by Scheffe’s post-hoc comparisons to determine between which groups the differences were statistically significant. The ANOVA’s results are presented in detail in Table 3.

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See Table3 on Page 2

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Skiing Participation by Age, Gender and Marital status (% of the population).

Age and frequency of participation

A cross-tabulation of the age groups against the levels of participation (infrequently, moderately, and frequently) revealed statistical significant differences (see Table 4). The level of participation was negatively correlated with ascending age group levels (x 2=12, p<.01). Age 1 group achieved the highest rate (40.2 %) in ‘infrequently’ participation level and the lowest rate in ‘frequently’ level. In contrast, the older participant group (age 3) achieved the highest rate (52.9 %) in ‘frequently’ participation level and the lowest in ‘infrequently’ level.

Gender and frequency of participation

An association also found between participation and gender (x 2=5.7, p<.05), with male recreational skiers having higher participation rates than females. Contrary, younger female ski groups participated in skiing more ‘infrequently’ (45.5%) than the older female groups in ‘frequently’ participation levels (21. 2%).

Marital status and frequency of participation

Non significant relationship (x 2= 4, p< n. s.) revealed between participation levels and participants marital status. There was only a trend for the single individuals to participate more ‘frequently’ in skiing that the married ones.

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See Table4 on Page 2

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Discussion

Lack of time related constraints were revealed by all studies that investigated constraints on recreation participation. (Alexandris & Carroll, 1997a; 1997b; Kay & Jackson, 1991 ). Skiing is an even more time consuming activity since it required traveling to the skiing resorts, which usually are far away from the urban places. Resorts managers have almost no influence on removing these constraints. The results also indicated that financial problems were reported as important ones by the majority of participants. This finding is once again related to the specific requirements of the activity in question (skiing). Skiing is still considered as an expensive sport for the majority of the population. While lowering prices is not obviously a realistic suggestion for resort managers, efforts should be made towards promoting skiing packages for families (family packages) and specific groups of the population (e.g., students) that are facing financial problems, if these groups are to be targeted.

The high mean score of the item reading “skiing is not among my priorities” for the lowest participation level group (infrequently) explains in a degree their unwillingness to participate more frequently. While this is obviously an intrapersonal constraint related to preferences and personal interest, it could be argued that this constraint could in a way be removed by providing outdoor education and making winter skiing in Greece a more “mass” sport.

The high statistical differences that revealed on the constraints “I do not have good skiing skills”, “I do not have self-confidence”, and I do not know how to skiing” are also important findings, since they indicated that intrapersonal constraints are in a degree responsible for the low participation rates of some individuals. This finding is in line with previous research that conducted in other leisure and recreation settings (e.g., Alexandris & Carroll, 1997). As previously discussed, intrapersonal are internal constraints that are related to individual psychological states and attributes. The removal of intrapersonal constraints is not an easy task since they are not beyond the control of the organization (Alexandris & Carroll, 1999). In the case of skiing, however, it is clear that there are a certain groups of individuals who do not feel confident about their skills and abilities, and this limits their participation levels. Once again efforts should be made towards the promotion of skiing. Having free teaching classes could help towards this direction. It is important that beginners should get as much support as possible by the repost teachers and staff.

In terms of profiling recreational skiers that results indicated that the most frequent skiers are young, single and male individuals. This once again suggests that there is space for better promotion on the side of resort marketers. There should be promotional strategies targeting females, families and older individuals ( Havitz et al, 1994; Dimanche et al, 1993) . Different promotional strategies are obviously required as well as different design of the main product. Examples could be offering skiing opportunities for the whole family, offering light programs for old individuals, improving the whole experience by emphasising on the physical environment.

References

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Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of the Sample

Table 2 The most significance constraints according to the frequency of participation

Table 3. Anova’s between constraints and different frequency of participation

<p”>** p<.oo1, *p<.05

Table 4. Ski Participation by Age, Gender and Marital status (% of the population).