RECREATION DEMAND AND BENEFIT ESTIMATION METHODOLOGY 



Introduction 



The method employed in this study is a Regional Travel Cost 

 Model (TCM). This approach is recommended by the U.S. Water 

 Resources Council (1979, 1983) as one of the two preferred 

 techniques for estimating recreation benefits. The method is one 

 of the most widely applied demand estimating techniques. TCM 

 uses observations of travel distance (as a measure of price) and 

 trips taken (as a measure of quantity) to statistically trace out 

 a demand equation. The resulting first stage or per capita 

 demand equation allows the analyst to calculate the additional 

 amount recreationists would pay, over and above their travel 

 costs, to have the opportunity to hunt at a particular site. 

 This calculation can be done using a second stage, or site, 

 demand curve that relates added distance or added travel cost to 

 visitation. The method used here is direct integration of the 

 first stage demand curve, which is an equivalent approach (Menz 

 and Wilton, 1983). See Clawson and Knetsch (1966), Dwyer, Kelly 

 and Bowes (1977), or Sorg and Loomis (1985) for a discussion of 

 the basic TCM approach. 



Estimating the First Stage or Per Capita Demand Equation 



The traditional TCM demand equation has, as its dependent 

 variable, trips per capita from a given zone (i.e., a county or 

 state) of origin to a particular site. An alternative approach 

 is the individual observations model (Brown and Nawas , 1973). In 



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