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The purpose of this study was to examine the dimensionality and usefulness of Hofstede’s meas-
ure of values and Kahle’s List of Values (LOV) in the context of parks and recreation. Parks and
recreation areas around the world increasingly serve as international visitor attractions and play
an important role in the international tourism industry. Since values presumably differ among
members of different cultures and purportedly influence people’s perceptions and behaviours,
studying values among culturally diverse visitors is important if we are to understand their influ-
ence on parks and recreation perceptions and behaviour. In 2005-2006, visitors to Pokfulam
Country Park near metropolitan Hong Kong were surveyed. Using a purposive on-site conven-
ience sampling approach at sites known to be heavily used by visitors with diverse ethnic back-
grounds, a sample of 253 Hong Kong residents, 153 Mainland Chinese Visitors and 233 West-
erners (including American, British, Australian, and European) was obtained. Analyses showed
that when employed in a park and recreation context, Hofstede’s measure of values must be
further refined to provide acceptable validity, reliability, and utility. On the other hand, Kahle’s
List of Values (LOV) was found to be a meaningful and useful measure of values in a park set-
Abstract
CHIEH-LU LI
National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan
WORLD LEISURE JOURNAL No. 2/2010 © Copyright by the authors
Research papers
Examining the dimensionality of
values for culturally diverse
customers in parks and recreation
GARRY E. CHICK
The Pennsylvania State University, USA
HOMER C. WU
National Taichung University, Taiwan
TIAN-MING YEN
National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan
JOURNAL