Outdoor recreation in various landscapes: Which site characteristics really matter?

This paper investigates the role played by different site characteristics in influencing people's choice of outdoor recreation destinations. Contrary to prior studies, our experiment accounts for a large diversity of eligible landscapes described using photomontages. We use a discrete choice experiment (DCE) proposing respondents to choose among hypothetical destinations described in terms of eight site characteristics. We study the trade-offs made by various profiles of respondents among those site characteristics, resulting in different destination choices. The DCE attributes are spatially explicit to represent recreational patterns in the form of site quality maps using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). We conclude by stressing implications of this research for tourism and land management policy-making in peri-urban environments. Interestingly, preferences for site characteristics vary significantly with the recreational activities that respondents engage in. Hikers and cyclists preferences should be particularly considered in future planning decisions.

[1]  L. Tyrväinen,et al.  Ecological and aesthetic values in urban forest management , 2003 .

[2]  Dietrich Earnhart.  DO TRAVEL COST MODELS VALUE TRANSPORTATION PROPERLY , 2003 .

[3]  J. Loomis,et al.  Economic Value of Instream Flow for Non-Commercial Whitewater Boating Using Recreation Demand and Contingent Valuation Methods , 2014, Environmental Management.

[4]  Jens Abildtrup,et al.  Spatial preference heterogeneity in forest recreation , 2013 .

[5]  E. Pouta,et al.  Modelling recreation demand with respondent-reported driving cost and stated cost of travel time: A Finnish case , 2012 .

[6]  F. Herzog,et al.  Supplementing Land-Use Statistics with Landscape Metrics: Some Methodological Considerations , 2001, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[7]  R. Kaplan,et al.  The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective , 1989 .

[8]  B. Kaltenborn,et al.  Associations between environmental value orientations and landscape preferences , 2002 .

[9]  P. Verburg,et al.  Spatial quantification and valuation of cultural ecosystem services in an agricultural landscape , 2014 .

[10]  Mats Wilhelmsson,et al.  The Impact of Traffic Noise on the Values of Single-family Houses , 2000 .

[11]  Tiago Domingos,et al.  Testing for the survey mode effect on contingent valuation data quality: A case study of web based versus in-person interviews , 2007 .

[12]  D. McFadden.  Conditional logit analysis of qualitative choice behavior , 1972 .

[13]  D. Hensher,et al.  Stated Choice Methods: Analysis and Applications , 2000 .

[14]  Wiktor L. Adamowicz,et al.  Modeling Recreation Site Choice: Do Hypothetical Choices Reflect Actual Behavior? , 2001 .

[15]  David A. Hensher,et al.  The Mixed Logit Model: the State of Practice and Warnings for the Unwary , 2001 .

[16]  G. Fry,et al.  Relationships between visual landscape preferences and map-based indicators of landscape structure , 2006 .

[17]  Andrew B. Cooper,et al.  Estimating the consequences of wildfire for wildfire risk assessment, a case study in the southern Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada , 2010 .

[18]  A. Bryman.  Social Research Methods , 2001 .

[19]  U. Pröbstl,et al.  Management of recreation and nature based tourism in European forests. , 2010 .

[20]  Joffre Swait,et al.  Using stated preference and revealed preference modeling to evaluate prescribing decisions. , 2004, Health economics.

[21]  W. Haider,et al.  Would You Displace? It Depends! A Multivariate Visual Approach to Intended Displacement from an Urban Forest Trail , 2007 .

[22]  USING COMPUTER GRAPHICS FOR ASSESSING THE AESTHETIC VALUE OF LARGE-SCALE RURAL LANDSCAPES , 1999 .

[23]  D. MacDonald,et al.  A combined site proximity and recreation index approach to value natural amenities: an example from a natural resource management region of Murray-Darling Basin. , 2012, Journal of environmental management.

[24]  K. Lancaster.  A New Approach to Consumer Theory , 1966, Journal of Political Economy.

[25]  Gary Koop,et al.  Modelling Recreation Demand Using Choice Experiments: Climbing in Scotland , 2002 .

[26]  J. Roos,et al.  Mapping the attractiveness of the Dutch countryside: a GIS-based landscape appreciation model , 2007 .

[27]  A. Ghermandi,et al.  A Global Map of Coastal Recreation Values: Results from a Spatially Explicit Meta-Analysis , 2011 .

[28]  G. Parsons.  A NOTE ON CHOICE OF RESIDENTIAL LOCATION IN TRAVEL COST DEMAND MODELS , 1991 .

[29]  N. Hanley,et al.  Rationing an open-access resource: mountaineering in Scotland. , 2002 .

[30]  Timothy C. Haab,et al.  Valuing Environmental and Natural Resources: The Econometrics of Non-Market Valuation , 2002 .

[31]  A. McMichael,et al.  Ecosystems and Human well-being , 2003 .

[32]  I. Bateman,et al.  Beyond implicit prices: recovering theoretically consistent and transferable values for noise avoidance from a hedonic property price model , 2007 .

[33]  A. Fleischer,et al.  Measuring the recreational value of agricultural landscape , 2000 .

[34]  U. Pröbstl,et al.  Managing cross-country skiing destinations under the conditions of climate change - Scenarios for destinations in Austria and Finland , 2012 .

[35]  J. C. van den Bergh,et al.  Estimation of Distance-Decay Functions to Account for Substitution and Spatial Heterogeneity in Stated Preference Research , 2013, Land Economics.

[36]  T. Sievänen,et al.  Access to green areas and the frequency of visits : A case study in Helsinki , 2007 .

[37]  R. Scarpa,et al.  Deriving and Testing Efficient Estimates of WTP Distributions in Destination Choice Models , 2009 .

[38]  P. Groenewegen,et al.  Natural Environments—Healthy Environments? An Exploratory Analysis of the Relationship between Greenspace and Health , 2003 .

[39]  N. Hanley,et al.  The New Economics of Outdoor Recreation , 2003 .

[40]  G. Fry,et al.  Indicators of perceived naturalness as drivers of landscape preference. , 2009, Journal of environmental management.

[41]  Rebecca Lynn Johnson,et al.  Using Image-capture Technology to Assess Scenic Value at the Urban/Forest Interface: a Case Study , 1994 .

[42]  William S. Breffle,et al.  Estimating recreational trout fishing damages in Montana's Clark Fork River basin: summary of a natural resource damage assessment. , 2002, Journal of environmental management.

[43]  V. Smith,et al.  The opportunity cost of travel time in recreation demand models. , 1983 .

[44]  Kenneth E. McConnell,et al.  On-Site Time in the Demand for Recreation , 1992 .

[45]  N. Hanley,et al.  Valuing improvements to coastal waters using choice experiments: An application to revisions of the EU Bathing Waters Directive , 2013 .

[46]  Roy Brouwer,et al.  Testing geographical framing and substitution effects in spatial choice experiments , 2013 .

[47]  F. Nevens,et al.  Perception of rural landscapes in Flanders: Looking beyond aesthetics , 2007 .

[48]  David Hoyos,et al.  The state of the art of environmental valuation with discrete choice experiments , 2010 .

[49]  R. Costanza,et al.  Contributions of cultural services to the ecosystem services agenda , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[50]  Richard T. Carson,et al.  A Common Nomenclature for Stated Preference Elicitation Approaches , 2011 .

[51]  J. Lovett,et al.  Public preferences and willingness-to-pay for nature conservation in the North York Moors National Park, UK , 1999 .

[52]  I. Bateman,et al.  Estimating Arrival Numbers for Informal Recreation: A Geographical Approach and Case Study of British Woodlands , 2010 .

[53]  Riccardo Scarpa,et al.  Modelling Determinants of Participation, Number of Trips and Site Choice for Outdoor Recreation in Protected Areas , 2008 .

[54]  Fredrik Carlsson,et al.  Valuing wetland attributes: an application of choice experiments , 2003 .

[55]  Michael Getzner,et al.  Temporal stability of individual preferences for river restoration in Austria using a choice experiment. , 2012, Journal of environmental management.

[56]  E. Wilman.  The value of time in recreation benefit studies , 1980 .

[57]  N. Hanley,et al.  Valuing enhancements to forest recreation using choice experiment and contingent behaviour methods , 2007 .

[58]  R. Kaplan,et al.  People needs in the urban landscape : Analysis of Landscape And Urban Planning contributions , 2008 .

[59]  Huery-Ren Yeh,et al.  Developing an evaluation model for destination attractiveness: sustainable forest recreation tourism in Taiwan , 2010 .

[60]  Mary Jo Kealy,et al.  Randomly Drawn Opportunity Sets in a Random Utility Model of Lake Recreation , 1992 .

[61]  J. Rolfe,et al.  Testing for Convergent Validity between Travel Cost and Contingent Valuation Estimates of Recreation Values in the Coorong, Australia , 2010 .

[62]  Riccardo Scarpa,et al.  Effects on Welfare Measures of Alternative Means of Accounting for Preference Heterogeneity in Recreational Demand Models , 2008 .

[63]  Paul Cheshire,et al.  Joint consumption benefits in recreational site ‘surplus’; an empirical estimate , 1976 .

[64]  J. Orshoven,et al.  Contrasting collective preferences for outdoor recreation and substitutability of nature areas using hot spot mapping , 2016 .

[65]  S. Broekx,et al.  Testing the Influence of Substitute Sites in Nature Valuation by Using Spatial Discounting Factors , 2017 .

[66]  Greg Brown,et al.  Assessing the value of public lands using public participation GIS (PPGIS) and social landscape metrics , 2014 .