Working Lands and Winter Tourists in the Rocky Mountain West: A Travel Cost, Contingent Behaviour and Input–Output Analysis

Abstract

Using a contingent behaviour survey approach informed by revealed travel cost data, this study explores the connection between private land use decisions and the quality and quantity of the tourism experience in Gunnison, Colorado, USA. The authors ask winter tourists about their expenditure patterns and other features of their visit. They then describe the process of agricultural land conversion to residential or commercial development and ask tourists whether they would change the duration of their visit were farms and ranches converted to second homes and tourism-related businesses. The authors infer the direct expected economic impact of private land conversion on the winter tourism industry in Gunnison County. They then use tourists' stated expenditure patterns and reported change in visitation to derive the total, direct, indirect and induced impact of private land use change on the local economy through winter tourism visitation using a county level input–output analysis. The analysis also captures the extent to which tourists view private and public lands as providing complementary versus substitute goods and services, a potential issue of concern for county planners across high natural amenity and mountainous regions where public lands play a dominant role.