Abstract: [Objective] The purpose of this study was to analyse the different recreational motivations of tourists visiting the Simingshan National Forest Park, with the aim of providing a scientific basis for recommendations to upgrade and transform tourist attractions.[Method] A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the recreational motivations bringing tourists to the Simingshan National Forest Park. SPSS 22.0 software was used to conduct descriptive statistical analysis, exploratory factor analysis, mean value calculation, independent sample t-test, and one-way ANOVA. AMOS 21.0 software was used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis.[Result] There were 5 recreational motivations among tourists visiting the Simingshan National Forest Park. Their mean values are as follows:educational(3.96), social (4.03), self-realization (3.86), healthy relaxation (4.37), and escape(3.79). These results showed a decreasing trend in motivations from healthy relaxation to social, and then educational, self-realization, and finally escape.There were significant differences in the number of tourists with different levels of education. Tourists with different occupations showed significant differences in educational, self-realization, and escape motivations; while visitors with different levels of household income displayed significant differences in educational, social, and health and relaxation motivations.[Conclusion] The motivation ‘health and relaxation’ obtained the highest overall responses from visitors, followed by ‘social’, ‘educational’, and ‘self-realization’, while ‘escape’ ranked last. While maintaining the ecological security of forest, it was suggested that the Simingshan National Forest Park develop forest tourism for health, research and education, vacations, recreation of the aged, forest-based sports, etc.

Key words: Simingshan National Forest Park, recreational motivations, types, differences