Travel Cost Model Research Articles

Assessment of recreational value of national Chambal sanctuary: application of individual travel cost model

Purpose This study aims to assess the recreational value of the National Chambal Sanctuary highlighting the potential benefits of conservation and the need for sustainable practices. Design/methodology/approach This study uses the Individual Travel Cost Method to evaluate the expenses of individuals visiting the National Chambal Sanctuary. Findings The study reveals that the National Chambal Sanctuary has a significant recreational value, with an average visitor value of INR 35,335.69 or USD 434 and an annual value of INR 132,473,501.81 or approximately USD 1.62m, indicating substantial economic contribution. Research limitations/implications The study's limitations may stem from data collection constraints, visitor reporting biases or other factors affecting estimates' accuracy. Future research could explore socio-economic factors or factors affecting low tourist inflow in India's protected areas (PAs). Practical implications This study suggests raising entrance fees for the National Chambal Sanctuary to ensure financial sustainability, based on its high recreational value and average consumer surplus. This has practical implications for policymakers, conservationists and the tourism industry. Social implications The study underscores the significance of protecting PAs like the National Chambal Sanctuary, suggesting that public attitudes towards biodiversity conservation can be influenced by highlighting its economic and recreational value and promoting awareness of its significance. Originality/value The study evaluates the recreational value of a wildlife sanctuary in India, offering insights into conservation's economic benefits and sustainable practices and promoting further research.

Estimating the value of self‐drive recreation in the remote Kimberley: Sensitivity to multi‐destination trips

AbstractThe remote and iconic Kimberley region, in northern Western Australia, is a contested landscape with growing pressure for different types of land use and development. The region has high biodiversity values and impressive scenery that provide attractive recreation experiences for visitors. We estimate the value of domestic recreation to the region using a travel cost model. Analysis includes two approaches for accounting for multi‐destination trips (MDTs) given travel to remote sites are more likely to include these than shorter trips, and four specifications for the value of travel time. We estimate a total consumer surplus of A$110.34 million annually and find that adjusting travel costs for MDTs using stated survey information produces a better fitting model than using revealed travel information. These findings highlight both the importance of estimating recreation values for use in land use planning in the Kimberley and for improving the travel cost method for remote sites where per‐trip travel costs are high.

Shred Central: Estimating the user benefits associated with large public skateparks

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 14pt;">Skateparks, often called 'wheel parks,' are becoming increasingly common within communities worldwide. Despite this growth in parks, estimates show that the development of parks needs to catch up to users. Using a count data travel cost model, we estimate the adult user benefits associated with the Lauridsen Skatepark in Des Moines, Iowa – the largest in the United States. We estimate adult user benefits to be $61 per user per day and roughly $488,000 annually. This work contributes to the literature by being the first study to use econometric techniques to estimate skatepark user benefits. Second, we develop a simple and easy-to-apply method to assist municipalities in determining community skatepark needs. Third, our results support the literature showing that skateboarders are increasingly diverse.</span></p>

Economic Value of Resources Romokalisari Advanture Land Ecotourism in the Sub-district, Benowo, Surabaya City, East Java

Regarding fisheries in Indonesia, there is a need for balanced management so that existing resources can be used and utilized optimally. The Romokalisari Adventure Land tourist attraction, located in Benowo District, Surabaya City, is a tourist attraction that utilizes the balance between the two natural resources in the form of land and sea. The method used to find the economic value of resources in Romokalisari Adventure Land Ecotourism is a simple method, where there is a regression model to determine the influence of each factor and the Travel Cost Method (TCM) travel cost model to determine the economic value of resources. The results of this research show that the actual income obtained by Romokalisari Adventure Land Ecotourism is IDR. 120,000,000,- / year and potential income of IDR 720,000,000,-/ year. Potential income can also be generated by the emergence of potential that appears as an activity sector to expand economic income.

The Recreational Value of the Baltic Sea Coast: A Spatially Explicit Site Choice Model Accounting for Environmental Conditions

The coast plays a significant recreational role in the nine countries around the Baltic Sea. More than 70% of the population of these countries visit the coast, representing some 80 million recreational visits annually. Understanding the values associated with coastal recreation, and the potential welfare changes resulting from improvements in the state of environmental and infrastructure conditions of the Baltic Sea coast is important for marine environment management in the region. We estimate a spatially explicit travel cost model for Baltic coast recreation to assess the welfare of accessing individual sites, identify recreational hot spots and simulate the welfare changes resulting from improvements in environmental and infrastructure conditions. The total benefits associated with Baltic Sea coast-based recreation amount to 27.5 billion EUR per year with significant variation across sites. Improving water quality and infrastructure boost the recreational value by nearly 6.2 billion EUR, an increase of about a fifth of the existing recreational benefits.

Using social media data to estimate recreational travel costs: A case study from California

Understanding the economic value of ecosystem services is necessary to facilitate sustainable land use management, and to inform policy and decision making. However, valuing and monetizing ecosystem services remains challenging. Benefit-transfer and non-market valuation methods typically rely on administrative data and surveys, but this is time consuming, limited, and requires much more resources. Social media and other types of big data provide accessible and georeferenced data that can be incorporated into valuation approaches. We use recreation as an example and the Tahoe Central Sierra Initiative (TCSI) project area in California as a case study to explore the usefulness of such data in estimating travel costs that form an integral part of determining the value of recreational ecosystem services through the travel cost model. We estimated 6,951 person user days of recreation from 2,245 visitors who uploaded photographs to the Flickr photo-sharing application between 2005 and 2019. We used metadata from the images to infer visitor origins and estimate trip distance and costs of travel for visitors that took day trips (<500 miles (∼800 kms) roundtrip) to the area. Our results show that the most demand for recreational opportunities in the TCSI came from domestic visitors, particularly those from California and Nevada who took day trips. On average, visitors spent $156 per single day trip. The total cost of travel for recreational visits to the TCSI for the period was $491,500 (an average of $32,800 per year). However, when adjusted to align with actual visitation, the travel costs could range from $1.35 to $1.84 billion per year. Estimating recreational use and highlighting the travel cost for recreational opportunities illustrates how crowdsourced data can refine valuation approaches such as the widely used travel cost approach, which may fill in data gaps in valuing ecosystem services.

Understanding Ride-Hailing Sharing and Matching in Chicago Using Travel Time, Cost, and Choice Models

Ride-hailing data is sparingly available throughout the U.S., which limits researchers’ understanding of the mode. Chicago is one of a few cities that have mandated ride-hailing companies to submit detailed trip data to their local transportation agency. The dataset is one of the few to contain trip-level attributes such as fare, travel time, and trip length. Most research using the Chicago dataset has focused on understanding why people use ride-hailing. This study focuses on why ride-hailing passengers choose shared over private trips and what influences the shared trips to be matched. Trips to/from airports are less likely to be shared. Trips to/from low-income areas are more likely to be shared. Longer shared trips are more likely to be matched, shared trips to/from dense areas are more likely to be matched, and shared trips between areas with a high number of shared trips are more likely to be matched. Matching an additional shared trip with another adds approximately 4 min to a trip. Ride-hailing users’ value of time is found to be $48.23 per hour. Understanding travel behavior is important for all modes of transportation including ride-hailing. The results of this paper can be applied to guide polices aiming to promote more sustainable transportation modes.

Valuasi Ekonomi pada Wisata Pantai Pondok Permai dengan Travel Cost Model Perspektif Ekonomi Islam

This Research used a quantitative descriptive method, using primary data in determining the sample, namely purposive random sampling using the slovin formula. This research aims to determine the effect of the independent variant (distance, travel cost,facilities) on the dependen variable (number of visits) to pondok Indah beach tourism. This research used the travel cost model (TCM) approach to determine the factors that influence the number of visits and estimate the economic value of Pondok permai beach. The result showed that the travel cost and facilities variable had a significant effect and the distance variable had no significant effect. From the calculation result, it is known that the economic value of Pondok permai beach tourism is Rp. 5.573.750.000 per year with a consumer surplus value of Rp.796.250 per individual per visit within a one year period. Based on Islamic perspective, Pondok permai beach tourism has implemented several criteria for halal tourism, such as protecting the coastal environment, managing and developing it wisely, providing prayer facilities and providing food and drinks that are guaranteed to be halal.&#x0D; Keywords: Economic Valuation, Travel cost model, beach tourism, Islamic economic perspective.

The Indirect Economic Contribution of Fisheries to Coastal Communities through Tourism

The existence of a commercial fishery in a coastal community is often promoted by the tourism sector as a key feature to encourage visits by tourists. However, the contribution of fisheries to tourism in coastal communities in the economic literature is unclear, with mixed results from previous studies. In this study, we examine the counterfactual—how would tourism change in the absence of fishing, and how would this affect benefits to tourists and the local economy. We use a contingent behavior travel cost model, combining revealed and stated preference data, to estimate these changes for Mooloolaba, a coastal fishing town in the Sunshine Coast region of Queensland, Australia. We find that the fishing industry and related provision of local seafood generate $6 million in welfare gains to visitors. We further estimate that it is directly responsible for 19% of the total number of days visiting the town, contributing an additional $8 million per year through tourism related expenditure. Given the importance of the fishing industry to the tourism sector in coastal communities, there is a need for the tourism industry to engage in the fisheries management process.

Protecting coastal infrastructure in the face of increasing climate related pressures: A cost-benefit analysis of maintaining a tidal kayaking feature in Ireland

Climate change, the rising of sea levels and extreme weather conditions that can result in exceptional high tides and storm surges are threatening vulnerable coastal infrastructure. In this study, we investigate the recreational value of a tidal kayaking feature situated on the west coast of Ireland that is threatened in such a manner. A lock gate and sea wall, that separate the open sea from a natural sea lagoon, forms a standing wave at this kayaking site. The structure, built in the 1800s is currently in need of urgent maintenance works and the lagoon also needs dredging. By means of a travel cost model, the study derives the recreational use value of the site while a cost-benefit analysis estimates the net present value of carrying out repair works at the feature. We estimated that the consumer surplus is approximately €49,000 per year and the recreational benefits are more than three times the costs of restoring the site. The paper argues that cost-benefit analysis will be particularly important to justify funding the protection of small-scale coastal infrastructure where the benefit values to society are mainly non-market.

Directionally supervised cellular automaton for the initial peopling of Sahul

Reconstructing the patterns of Homo sapiens expansion out of Africa and across the globe has been advanced using demographic and travel-cost models. However, modelled routes are ipso facto influenced by migration rates, and vice versa. We combined movement ‘superhighways’ with a demographic cellular automaton to predict one of the world's earliest peopling events — Sahul between 75000 and 50000 years ago. Novel outcomes from the superhighways-weighted model include (i) an approximate doubling of the predicted time to continental saturation (∼10,000 years) compared to that based on the directionally unsupervised model (∼5000 years), suggesting that rates of migration need to account for topographical constraints in addition to rate of saturation; (ii) a previously undetected movement corridor south through the centre of Sahul early in the expansion wave based on the scenarios assuming two dominant entry points into Sahul; and (iii) a better fit to the spatially de-biased, Signor-Lipps-corrected layer of initial arrival inferred from dated archaeological material. Our combined model infrastructure provides a data-driven means to examine how people initially moved through, settled, and abandoned different regions of the globe.

Modelling domestic marine and coastal tourism demand using logit and travel cost count models

Domestic marine and coastal tourism has increased in importance over the last number of years due to the impacts of environmental concerns connected with international travel, the associated health benefits and COVID-19 related travel restrictions. Consequently, this paper analyses the determinants of demand for domestic day trips and overnight stays by Irish residents to marine and coastal areas. Two logit models examine the factors that influence participation in the coastal day trip and overnight stay markets, respectively. Two truncated travel cost models are employed to explore trip duration, one analysing the number of day trips taken and the other examining the number of nights spent in marine and coastal areas. The results suggest a division amongst those who can and cannot access marine and coastal tourism. In particular, those who are financially better off have a greater level of access to Irish marine and coastal tourism. Additionally, although generally disregarded in tourism policy and marketing, the results indicate a vibrant day trip market that commands high per person consumer surplus.

What is free food worth? A nonmarket valuation approach to estimating the welfare effects of food pantry services

AbstractFood pantries provide groceries to millions of households in the United States every year. Although there is research and information on many other aspects of food pantries, including financial information such as tax valuations for donated food, there is not a literature establishing the economic value of food pantry access for clients and potential clients. We use a valuation approach from environmental economics, revealed preference travel cost modeling, in a novel application to estimate food pantry value. We use a rich administrative dataset from a food bank system in Colorado and estimate demand for pantry visits, exploiting the move of a local pantry to correct for endogeneity bias. We find that the annual value of pantry access to pantry client households is between $600 and $1000, and the value per pantry visit is between $40 and $60. If we assume these values hold nationally, our localized results imply that the collective value of food pantry access among pantry client households may be between $19 billion and $28 billion dollars annually.

A travel cost recreation demand model examining the economic benefits of acid mine drainage remediation to trout anglers.

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a global environmental problem which has well-documented effects on the physical, chemical, biological, and ecological characteristics of waterways. Less well examined are the economic benefits generated by costly AMD remediation efforts. This research examines trout angler willingness-to-pay (WTP) to maintain fisheries quality benefits resulting from AMD remediation on the North Branch of the Potomac River (NBPR), Maryland. The NBPR has a history of severe AMD-related degradation previously rendering the waterbody unsuitable for many outdoor recreational activities such as trout fishing. However, extensive NBPR AMD remediation activities including nine automated limestone dosers that neutralize acidic water and improve water quality have been critical to developing and maintaining a high quality recreational trout fishery with hatchery-raised stocked trout and naturally reproducing populations of wild trout. To examine trout angler WTP to maintain current NBPR trout fishing quality and hence avoid plausible fishing quality reductions associated with the elimination of nine NBPR limestone dosers, a travel cost recreation demand model of trout angler fishing site choice was developed using data from a survey of Maryland non-tidal anglers. Model results reveal that annual Maryland trout angler WTP to maintain current NBPR trout stocking levels and wild trout abundance, relative to the elimination of the NBPR as a trout fishing site, is about $850,000. These economic benefits to a single stakeholder group - Maryland trout anglers - exceeds the total estimated $340,000 in annual operations and maintenance costs associated with all Maryland limestone dosers. While the positive net economic benefits produced by limestone dosers provide a justification for continuing annual limestone doser expenditures, it's important to note that total economic benefits are likely much higher, as many non-trout fishing benefits remain unaccounted for in this analysis. The approach in this manuscript can serve as a model for practitioners regarding the use of fisheries data and recreational fisher site choice to estimate fishing-related economic benefits from past or for future AMD remediation activities. Given anticipated substantial investments in AMD remediation, additional research in this area is much needed to evaluate past and guide future remediation activities.

Estimating Regional Aggregate Economic Value of Forest Recreation Services with Linked Travel Cost Model

Multi-site linked travel cost models answer the need for aggregate demand and economic value estimations that consider the attributes of all forest recreation sites in a region and the preferences of visitors at the regional level. This study aimed to predict the aggregate value of forest recreation services in Ankara Province, Turkey, with a discrete choice-count data-linked model in the context of current and changing levels of forest attributes. In the first stage, the site choice model was predicted with the random parameter logit model; in the second stage, the trip demand model was estimated with the negative binomial model. The expected consumer surplus per trip derived from the first model was used as the link variable in the second model. The expected consumer surplus per trip of 14 forest recreation sites was estimated at 137.34 TL, and the annual aggregate consumer surplus per capita was estimated at 156.59 TL—a total of 13.49 million TL in the study area. This study predicts the total benefit will increase by 65% if the development stage of stands at recreation sites increases by two stages, degraded stands are improved, stands have a normal canopy, and the camping facilities are improved.

A comparative analysis of the value of recreation in six contrasting Nordic landscapes using the travel cost method

Nordic landscapes provide recreational benefits to local, national, and international visitors. Nordic countries are, however, actively promoting a green shift towards the bioeconomy (that is, an intensification of agriculture and forestry), which may come at the cost of other benefits of Nordic landscapes, such as recreation. Information on recreational benefits and their monetary value is therefore required to outline a more comprehensive bioeconomy policy. For this paper, we estimated the benefits associated with the recreational use of six contrasting landscapes from four Nordic countries in their current environmental conditions, using a travel cost model, with data from a standardised survey of inhabitants and visitors. We found a large variation in the monetary estimates of the current annual recreational benefits from these landscapes, with a variation from 3.1 to 120.8 million € per landscape. We found that different characteristics of these landscapes, such as the visitor structure and visitors’ perceptions of the environmental quality, influence the estimated recreational value. Among the environmental characteristics we tested, we found that water quality and the proportion of nature conservation areas influence the recreational benefits, and need to be considered when making land use and management decisions. Furthermore, it is important that a sustainable bioeconomy policy is developed and implemented in such a way that the potentially negative effects of intensified agriculture and forestry on recreational possibilities are avoided.

사후적 관점에서 공공 공연시설의 편익산정에 대한 연구

Existing research methodology for example, the contingent valuation method, has some controvercial issues. Above all, this method includes both use-value and non-use value. However, if its effect of benefit is limited to a specific area, total calculated benefit could be may be underestimated compared to the method that focuses on the use-value. In addition, various biases may occur in the process of deriving the respondent's intention to pay based on a hypothetical scenario. For these reasons, there is a debate about the appropriate method for calculating the benefit of public performance facilities. In this study, the value of public performance facilities was calculated from the point of view of the use-value ex post, and the benefits that actual visitors gave to public performance facilities were identified. According to the estimation results, while the use-value based on the willingness to pay of respondents was 21,771 won, the value based on travel cost model was 44,878.2 won. Travel cost model is one of the revealed preference approach that indirectly calculate the value through transportation and time costs from the perspective of opportunity cost. As a result of the ex post analysis, it was confirmed that the existing methodologies could underestimate the benefit of public cultural performance facility.

Economic impacts of jellyfish blooms on coastal recreation in a UK coastal town and potential management options

Jellyfish bloom events in the Northeast Atlantic (NEA) are perceived to be increasing, based on a rise in reports of their interactions with human activities, including coastal recreation. However, few studies have assessed the potential impact of bloom events on coastal recreation in the NEA. This article reports findings of a questionnaire carried out with beach users to assess the possible impacts and potential management implications of an increase in jellyfish blooms at St Ives, Cornwall which is a popular seaside resort in the UK and was selected as the case study location. Impact to coastal recreation was estimated based on a revealed preferences valuation of beach visits and beach recreation that occurred using a travel cost model and its effect, based on projected change in overall visit patterns under jellyfish bloom scenarios. Under a scenario where blooms of jellyfish stingers cause beach closures, 42% of respondents reported that they would avoid the St Ives coasts entirely, resulting in an estimated use loss of £11,182.50 per day. Under a second scenario, where blooms of non-stingers occur on open beaches, 13% of visitors would avoid the beaches and coast, resulting in an estimated daily use value loss of £3461.25. Through an estimated valuation of willingness of beach users to donate to a hypothetical bloom management scheme, 40% of respondents stated that they would be willing to contribute to anti-jellyfish nets to limit the impact of blooms, with a projected benefit of £6000. Results suggest that jellyfish blooms could cause significant impact to coastal recreation in a UK seaside town. However, jellyfish management schemes have the potential to mitigate some of the impact. Further studies are required to determine whether the local impacts estimated in the present study are indicative of regional, UK-wide recreational behaviour change and losses in response to bloom events.

Valuing Recreation in Italy's Protected Areas Using Spatial Big Data

Protected areas offer unique opportunities for recreation, but the non-market nature of these benefits presents a significant challenge when trying to represent value in the decision-making processes. The most common techniques to value recreation are based on resource-intensive primary surveys which are difficult to perform at a large scale or in remote locations. This is true in the case of Italy, where a large and diverse network of protected areas suffers from lack of data. Here, we offer an alternative data source for the valuation of recreation by integrating the metadata of geotagged photographs from social media into single-site, individual travel cost models for 67 Italian protected areas. Count data model results are generally consistent with standard economic and consumer demand theory for ordinary goods, with a zero-truncated Poisson model returning down sloping demand curves for 50 of 67 sites. A significant travel cost coefficient was returned for 33 sites (p-value <0.05) for which consumer surplus estimates were found in the range between €6.33 and €87.16, with a mean value per trip of €32.82. Although not without their own challenges, the results presented highlight the possibilities of new forms of spatial big data as a novel data source for environmental economists.

Differential values associated with outdoor recreational access among the wildlife management area permit holders

Wildlife management areas (WMAs) are important part of the public land system for forest-based recreation in the United States. Despite the growing literature on the economics of outdoor recreation, information about the economic benefit of visitors' access to WMAs, common to 35 states nationally, is lacking. WMAs differ from other public areas because of their unique focus on promoting conservation as well as consumptive and non-consumptive uses. With the data collected from a mixed-mode survey of WMA permit holders, this study estimated a travel cost model of WMA visitation with price interactions to quantify the economic value of WMA access and evaluate whether and how the value of access varies among recreation activities. The results indicate heterogeneity in the per trip value of access among activities, ranging annually from $95 for hunting to $37 for angling and $32 for other non-consumptive activities. When aggregated across the statewide system, the total net benefit that WMA permit holders enjoy from having access to WMAs was as high as $219 million annually, a $138 per acre in an annual net benefit to permit holders. In addition, personal characteristics, including party size and hunting as the primary purpose of visiting, as well as WMA characteristics, including camping, boat access, and wheelchair accessible blinds, had positive effects on WMA access demand. These findings offer new insights into understanding the public value of conservation areas and help justify investing public funds in establishing and maintaining WMAs.