Resumo

BANEZ LOPEZ, Noris; MONCADA, José Alí  e  ARANGUREN, Jesús. Psycographic characteristics and environmental education needs of  Los Venados Recreative Area's visitors, El Avila National Park. Revista de Investigación [online]. 2009, vol.33, n.66, pp.37-63. ISSN 1010-2914.

The Avila National Park is located in the center-northern region of Venezuela, between the central coast and the valleys of Caracas and Guatire and part of the Barlovento’s plains. The park has an area of 85.192 hectares that protects diverse ecosystems like dry forests, deciduous forests, gallery forests, cloudy forests and grasslands. The National Park is the north boundary of Caracas and there is a high influx of visitors that use the area. This generates the need to determine the psycographics characteristics of the visitor at the recreational area of “Los Venados”, one of the most visited places in the National Park. This was made measuring the influx of visitors and applying a questionnaire to 263 people. The higher influx of visitors occurred on the weekends in the hours close to noon. The visitor stays more than three hours with the goal of recreation, to have social contacts, contact with nature and to know the area. The social values for the park are utilitarian, mentioning functions like place for recreation and sports and touristic attractions. One of the few ecological functions mentioned was the oxygen production (30%).

Palavras-chave : Visitors; El Avila National Park; Environmental Education.