Incorporating users' perceptions of site quality in a recreation travel cost model

The travel cost method is used to analyze the recreation demand for North C arolina trails. Incorporated in the demand model are users' perceptions of trail quality and their stated number of annual trips. Trail demand is spec ified with panel data that consists of two separate observations per respon dent. Users' behaviors are analyzed by combining both data on the observed trip counts and stated trips. Stated trips are the number of trips a user w ould have taken to the last trail used had the site quality been ideal. Sin ce both users and non users of trails during the past 12 months were asked their stated trips if quality improved, the non-participation effect was in corporated into the estimates of trail demand. Study findings showed users' ratings of trail quality can be successfully incorporated into a demand mo del to evaluate a hypothetical improvement in trail conditions. The estimat ed $15 increase in consumer surplus per trip is of practical importance to policy analyses aimed at improving social and environmental conditions aver se to trail users.