Impact of Public Health Emergencies on General Recreational Behaviors of Urban Residents in Nanjing of China During the COVID-19 Outbreak in July 2021

In order to investigate the impact of public health emergencies on the "general recreational behaviors" of urban residents, this research takes the COVID-19 outbreak event in Nanjing of China in July 2021 as an example, based on cell phone signaling data, analyzes the spatial distribution and temporal changes of urban residents' recreational travel behaviors before and after the outbreak, and then explores the impact of the hierarchical control policies on recreational travel behaviors via Difference-in-Differences (DID) method. It has found that after the outbreak, residents' recreational travel frequency decreased significantly and their average travel distance increased; the frequencies of travel to all four types of recreational destinations decreased after the outbreak; in average travel distance, those to natural attractions and sports/fitness destinations tended to increase, while those to cultural leisure as well as commercial entertainment destinations tended to decrease after the outbreak. Further results indicate that the hierarchical control policies had varying degrees of impact on different types of recreational travel. This research provides an interpretation on the spatio-temporal pattern and mechanism of urban residents' general recreational behaviors under public health emergencies, which can provide a reference for planning of urban recreational space.