| Along with the economic development, people's changed living attitude and strongly interactive between China and Western countries, outdoor recreation which stemmed from Western countries caused commonly attention. Outdoor recreation has been a social fashion, like camping, outdoor sports and golf.However the number of people who participate in Outdoor Recreation is still low in practice. Investigation showed the people who participate in golf are the successful businessmen with high education background. This dissertation will take the Geocaching as the case; research the cause of low participation in Chinese Outdoor Recreation from the cross-culture view. Since the Geocaching was introduced from America, it had developed for 6 years in China so far. According to the statistics made by Chinese website of Geocaching, there were 762 persons registered as the members, but only 29% of them often login the website. Several causes contribute to this phenomenon that Chinese outdoor recreationists show the great interest in Geocaching, while a few participate in it, including culture, national policy, macroeconomic and so forth. Geocaching is a transnational outdoor recreational project, so obviously the cultural factor is the very important factor which causes a very low level of participation for Chinese outdoor recreationists. Cross-cultural factor plays a key role in the promotion of Geocaching and has a major impact on the redesign of Geocaching in China.This essay will conduct an exploratory study on the low participation in outdoor recreation by taking Geocaching study. Geocaching participants'demographics and behavior and outdoor recreationists'perception on this new project will be researched by means of in-depth interview and focus group interview. Based on Hofstadter'sCultural Dimensions Theory, this study will analyze the cause of low participation of outdoor recreation and Geocaching. The results show that Chinese individualism, sexism, long-term orientation, high power distance and uncertainty avoidance are the root reason of low participation. The cross-cultural factor of Geocaching is an important issue that can not be avoided in the promotion in China, which plays a key role in the adaption and promotion. It has restriction on the promotion in China, while it provides a board creative space. Geocaching can change in its subject, positioning and organizational forms to suit the Chinese outdoor recreationists' preferences. Meanwhile, this is the common problem faced by all the outdoor recreation activities. Therefore, researching Geocaching and putting forward solutions will help solve other outdoor recreation activities'problems. |
