Four models for determining environmental quality effects on recreational demand and regional economics

Abstract

Abstract Underestimation of regional economic effects associated with the improvement of recreation facilities or environmental quality at a recreation site is likely to result unless all four recreation choice decisions are included in estimates of the first round or direct changes in final demand. These four related recreation choices are: (1) decision to participate in a given recreation activity: (2) decision about which of the available sites to visit; (3) decision about the frequency of trips to take to a given site; and (4) decision about length of stay at the recreation site. Recent advances in statistical techniques for modeling each one of these four recreation choice decisions is presented. We emphasize how recreation facilities and site environmental quality can be incorporated into such models. Lastly, an empirical example of using a related multinomial logit site selection model and trip frequency model for deer hunting allows us to illustrate how linking two of the four recreation choices yields more complete estimates of the change in number of trips, income and employment.