Rekreacja ruchowa i turystyka aktywna studentów kierunku turystyka i rekreacja na Uniwersytecie Łódzkim

Abstract

The educational goals of Tourism and Recreation studies at the Faculty of Geography of the University of Lodz make one think that active tourism and physical recreation should be priority activities for the students in the field as far as their leisure activities are concerned. Answering the question about whether this is indeed the case served as the point of departure for research carried out among the students of Tourism and Recreation, University of Lodz, which resulted in the present paper. The main aim of the study was to investigate the issue of physical activity of first-, second- and third-year students of Tourism and Recreation with regard to active tourism and physical recreation as well as to answer a number of questions concerning these two forms of activity. The questions particularly referred to the scope, participants and location of given forms of physical recreation and active tourism that the students take part in and whether studying Tourism and Recreation affects their decisions in this respect. The paper distinguishes between qualified tourism (requiring certain qualifications, permits) and active tourism based on physical activity, but not entailing any formal requirements. Research discussed in the present paper was conducted during the 2007/2008 academic year and involved a questionnaire survey. It was intended to be thorough, but taking the results into consideration it has to be regarded as a pilot study. On the whole, 78 people were examined, including 55 females. The greatest number of the participants were third-year students, with second-year students representing the smallest portion of the sample. The average age of the informants was 20.9. The study points to the most popular forms of active tourism (mountain walking, skiing, snowboarding, cycling, lowland walking, canoeing) and physical recreation (swimming, walking, cycling, skiing, skating, snowboarding, team games, running). To sum up, the results of the survey demonstrate that the majority of Tourism and Recreation students are involved in active tourism and physical recreation. However, they primarily choose well-known sports and no one reports doing rare or extreme sports. Also, the role of qualified tourism seems insignificant since only 11 people declare they possess any qualifications in this respect. Moreover, the study shows that studying Tourism and Recreation has influence on both the increased interest in active tourism and physical recreation and the choice of activities. The activities that form part of the curriculum tend to be chosen most frequently. Apart from this, most students claim they are more interested in sports promoted by the university, such as skiing or canoeing. The main area of students’ activity is Poland, while in the case of recreation the dominating location is Lodz Province. Unfortunately, there can be observed a negative phenomenon of decrease in the number of people taking part in active tourism: among first-year students it is 90%, whereas among third-year students it is only about 70%. This might suggest that some action is needed to enhance the positive effect of active tourism trips organized by the university and to make the offer wider so that less popular forms of active tourism and physical recreation should be promoted.