Benchmarking of outdoor activity facilities : an analysis of German hiking facilities and its implications to Finland

Abstract

The health effects of regular physical activity play an integral part in the promotion of outdoor participation. Well-maintained and marketed outdoor facilities encourage in this regard people to be more active outside of their homes.

The aim of this study is to analyse popular German outdoor facilities in order to identify good working practices in Germany that can potentially be applied in Finland with the purpose of encouraging Finnish people to go outdoors more often. The study was conducted in cooperation between the University of Jyväskylä and Suomen Latu. The main research questions was: What knowledge can Suomen Latu gain from the administration of popular German hiking facilities in order to encourage Finnish people to go outdoors more often?

Six semi-structured interviews with German and Finnish outdoor experts were conducted to explore the environmental differences in which nature participation takes place in both countries. Furthermore, authorities of German outdoor facilities, such as national parks and distinct travel regions/trails were interviewed to discover successful practices that attract German people to go outdoors. The Atlas.ti programme was utilised to organise and partly analyse the collected interview data. Finally, content analysis of webpages of the respective examined German outdoor facilities provided additional information to complete the case studies.

The results suggest that there is no coherent way-marking system in Finland. Nevertheless, outdoor participation remains to be heavily supported by local municipalities and other governmental institutions in Finland, such as Metsähällitus. Finnish people are increasingly interested in day trips. Appropriate outdoor facilities that are easily accessible and do not demand long travels would respond well to the contemporary trend to be active on a regular base outdoors. Popular examples of well-administrated and marketed German outdoor facilities may build an appropriate base to develop similar facilities in Finland, such as tree-top trails, E-paths and roller skating tracks.

When drawing a comparison to Finland, it should not be forgotten that the outdoor culture in Germany bases on different historical and cultural circumstances. In other words, facilities that work well in Germany, do not necessarily find a successful application in Finland.