Chasing Informed Decisions: A Research Note on the Potential for Strava to Support Rural Recreation Planning

Abstract

With user-generated data from social media platforms becoming more widely available to researchers, the utility of these datasets offers a valuable opportunity for recreation and tourism managers to enhance decision-making processes in their communities. The activity-tracking app called Strava is an underutilized data source in rural recreation planning. This dataset is a useful supplementary tool that can be used in combination with traditional methods of data collection. We tested the usability of data provided by Strava Metro (a non-profit) to assess its capabilities with a case study of Kingdom Trails. We used trail counter data to validate Strava’s bike ride-counts on five trails. We integrated traffic count data to determine peak times for both bike riders and vehicles where safety concerns may arise. We propose that Strava data may provide additional insights into trail usage patterns, intensity variations, and visitor use hotspots offering a holistic understanding of recreation at different spatial scales.