CONGESTION AT RECREATION AREAS - EMPIRICAL-EVIDENCE ON PERCEPTIONS, MITIGATING BEHAVIOR AND MANAGEMENT PREFERENCES

Economists have tried to estimate the demand for recreation under cond itions of congestion, struggling especially with a model that uses obs erved rather than stated behaviour to obtain results. This paper repor ts statistical analyses of data on perceptions, mitigating behaviour a nd management preferences in order to highlight the difficulties relat ed to empirical analysis of congestion. We offer evidence that may be of assistance to those wishing to construct measures of congestion for use in an observed behaviour model. The results may also be useful to recreation area managers who can implement a quota or permit system o r change site entry or access fees to control access to the site they manage. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.