The estimation of benefits from recreation sites and the provision of a new recreation facility

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Abstract
Mansfield N. W. (1971) The estimation of benefits from recreation sites and the provision of a new recreation facility, Reg. Studies 5, 55-69. The paper stems from work undertaken as part of the appraisal of a water conservation project in the Morecambe Bay area (N.W. England). It develops the travel cost approach to the measurement of consumers' surplus into the derivation of a “demand model” for an existing major regional recreation area 25 km (15 miles) to the north of Morecambe Bay, and an assessment of the benefits derived from its use in 1966. The model was then used to predict the expected level of visits to the existing area in 1981, and the benefits derived from it in that year. The assumption was then introduced that any new recreation area created on Morecambe Bay would offer the same recreation opportunities as the existing area, and a method was developed to predict the joint demand for the two areas. An assessment was then made of the incremental benefit which would result from recreation on Morecambe Bay. From a comparison between this benefit and the overall estimate of surplus for the two areas, it was concluded that present methods of measuring the benefits from recreation are inadequate and misleading, if applied to areas of regional significance in Britain.