Estimating the Value of Alternative Outdoor Recreation Facilities Within a Small Area

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Abstract
Consumers of major urban outdoor recreation facilities usually travel short distances. The small expenditures of time and travel costs incurred by users of such facilities has led to the supposition that one cannot evaluate the benefits of urban parks by travel cost methods. This paper constructs a traditional travel cost model, extended to include alternative recreation sites to test this supposition. The island of Oahu in the State of Hawaii, with numerous beach parks at fairly short distances from users, provides data for a test. The model also yields estimates of willingness to pay for the services of these parks. Demand functions obtained generally confirm the usefulness of travel cost procedures. All own-price regression coefficients are negative; nine of eleven are significant at the 5% level.