Outdoor Boom
By Outdoor Industry Association
On March 31, Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) released exclusive insights about Americans’ engagement in outdoor activities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The special report, The New Outdoor Participant (COVID and Beyond), examines demographics and psychographics of the new outdoor participant—defined as someone who participated in an outdoor activity for the first time during the pandemic or after a significant lapse.
The report, created with research partner NAXION, reveals that these new participants are more likely to be female, younger, living in an urban area, and slightly more ethnically diverse than existing participants. They primarily sought socially distanced outdoor activities in order to spend time with loved ones safely, to exercise, stay healthy, or to reduce screen-time fatigue.
The report also found that new participants are largely motivated by outdoor recreation opportunities with low barriers to entry that are available and accessible within 10 miles of their homes, including walking, running, biking, and hiking.
“This one-of-a-kind report further shows the pandemic has brought in new participants as well as some new behaviors,” says Lise Aangeenbrug, Outdoor Industry Association executive director.
New participants found the outdoors to be a safe and accessible way to spend time with friends and family amid tight pandemic restrictions that limited indoor gatherings.
Additionally, people cited that the pandemic’s impact has inspired them to reevaluate priorities, seeking positive life changes and reducing screen time.
“Initial findings of the special new participant report show strong overall increases in outdoor recreation by a slightly more demographically and socioeconomically diverse participant base. This highlights the need to ensure equitable access to the outdoors for all. We can do this by helping to create programming, policy, and content around close-to-home recreation and geared toward this broader, more diverse audience of new outdoor participants,” says Stephanie Maez, Outdoor Foundation managing director.
The special report highlights the following opportunities to increase retention of new outdoor participants:
- Create more outdoor recreation opportunities close to home: Parks and open areas near where people live are a crucial part of growing participation. The pandemic has shown that there is a demand for close-to-home outdoor recreation opportunities.
- Invest in programming that en-gages families in the outdoors.
- Help new participants make their activities more social as restrictions lift.
- Develop programs and services with the specific goal of diversifying the participant base.
- Develop strategies for encouraging people to start with activities such as walking, running, hiking, and birdwatching, which have relatively low barriers to entry.
- Position outdoor recreation as an antidote to the mental health consequences of the pandemic, a way to get out from behind the screens that have dominated pandemic life, and a method to maintain the focus on what is important in life.
You can view The New Outdoor Participant (COVID and Beyond), here. The full 2020 Outdoor Foundation Annual Participation Report will be released this Summer. If you would like to be notified when that report is released, click here.
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