Extended Abstract: In the last decade there has been an increasing amount of money spent on ski “centres” in Scotland and there are many plans for the continuation of this spending in the near future. From a study conducted by Milne and Radford of the economic impact of Scottish ski resorts on the HIE Region (Fraser Allendar Quarterly Review, Spring, pg48-50) in 1998 the skiers in the Highlands Enterprise area spent 17665224 pounds, supporting directly and indirectly 1500 jobs during the ski season. Milne and Radford concluded the ski industry in Scotland has “an extremely important contribution to the rural highland economy.” With recreational skiing having such an important economic impact on the ski regions of Scotland, it was the intention of the following study to develop a model to identify the affects on the number of recreational ski visits. The main problem the researchers encountered was the distance driven variable seemed to be insignificant and contained the “wrong sign.” Consequently the researchers dropped the distance driven variable, later to find the problem in their study was the existence of two markets rather than one. The two markets consist of day-trip skiers and overnight skiers. It was found that the distance driven had a significant impact on the day-trip skiers who wanted the maximum amount of ski time and that the distance driven did not significantly impact the overnight skiers because they were doing the majority of the driving on Friday and Sunday evenings, not affecting their amount of ski time significantly. In addition the nearby accommodations were found totally insignificant for day-trip skiers, while snow cover surprisingly enough was found unimportant to the overnight skiers. The researchers found it extremely difficult to make significant conclusions based on their belief that stated consumer preferences usually overstate the effect of change and that an analysis of real skier behavior patterns would be appropriate in comparison to this more recent representation of stated preferences. In conclusion the researchers do provide owners of local ski areas with recommendations for more effective development strategies.

Data Sources:

(Expected expenditure) variable

(Distance from ski area) variable found through:

Survey conducted by the researchers of 670 adults at the five Scottish ski centers.

Comparisons made to data from:

The Economic Impact of Scottish ski centres on the HIE Region, Fraser of Allendar

Quarterly Review, Spring, 48-50.

(Population Skier Days) data from:

Scottish Tourism Commentary, Mackay Consultants, Inverness, 1995.

(# of beds reported to be near each ski site) data from:

Ski Scotland, Ski Scotland Brochure, Scottish Tourist Board, Edinburgh, 1995.

(Hard) variable = Overall Difficulty of Ski area

(Snow Cover) variable

data collected from ski centers themselves.