Hanley, N., G. Koop, R. Wright, and B. Alvarez-Farizo. “Go climb a mountain: an

application of recreation demand models to rock climbing in Scotland.”

(See

Extended Abstract: With Mountaineering becoming an increasing popular sport in Scotland with figures from the Highlands Islands Enterprise (HIE) indicating that 767,000 mountaineers from the UK visited the Highlands and Islands in 1996 with a mean spending of 18.71 pounds a day, and total spending in the area for mountaineering around 230.8 million pounds yearly, the importance of researching the demographics and preferences of these recreationalists becomes very clear. This study focuses on the sport of rock-climbing in Scotland, with total participation estimated between 82,836-153,400 total climbers per year. The researchers’ goal was to determine why climbers go to certain sites more frequently than others using two different preference approaches known as the Random Utility Model and the Count model. The Random Utility Model was used to test climbers preferences for one rock-climbing site over another based on attributes like distance from the nearest road and such physical attributes of the site as difficulty and beauty of surrounding environment. The researchers split their study based on the summer and winter season and found very different results as far as climber preferences for the two different seasons. The data was achieved by sending surveys out to members of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland. A usable sample of 267 rock-climbers was achieved through this process. Climbers were asked questions concerning there frequency of rock-climbing and their preferences concerning the attributes listed below, for both the winter and summer seasons. As far as demographics the researchers found the majority of respondents were male (79%) and held a degree including BA, B.Sc., or PhD (71%). The mean number of climbs completed a year was 57. Climbing area most visited was Glencoe. The majority of respondents rated the difficulty rating of a climb as the most important factor in a climb during the summer and winter seasons but found travel distance least important during the summer and scenic quality of a site least important during the winter, with many differences in rankings among the other attributes. All of the attributes ended up with the expected signs and all resulted with significance except surrounding scenic quality. As stated in the abbreviated abstract, such information could be useful to parks and recreation officials in determining preferences of recreationalists in order to prioritize expenditures. For example, choosing between increased expenditures on improving access to sites versus increased funds for expanding sites to decrease congestion at sites.

Data Sources/References:

The researchers developed their random utility site choice model from earlier studies by:

Vaughn and Russel C (1982) “Valuingn a fishing day: an application of the varying

parameters model” Land Economics, 58, 451-463.

Englin, J. and Mendelsohn, R. (1991) “A hedonic travel costs analysis for the valuation

of multiple components of site quality: the recreation value of forest management,

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 21, 275-290.

All data not collected from researchers’ surveys was taken from:

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (1996) “The Economic Impacts of Hillwalking,

Mountaineering and Associated Activities in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.” Produced by Jones Economics and published by Highlands and Islands Enterprise. April.

Previous study by Shaw and Jakus (1996) on the application of recreational demand models to rock climbing:

Shaw W D and Jakus P (1996) “Travel cost models of the demand for rock-climbing”

Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, October 133-142.

The Random Utility Site Choice Model:

Uin=Vin+Ein

Uin=utility function for the representative individual

Vin=the deterministic component of utility for climber n visiting site I

Ein=the random component of utility

Vin=Xin

Xin=is a vector of site attributes (crowding, length of climbs, travel costs…) as perceived by individual n, and  a vector of parameters attached to these attributes.

Probability of choosing site i over site j is given by:

Prob(i)=(exp(Xi))/((jc)exp(Xj)

Attributes selected to describe the sites were:

  • Average length of climbs
  • Average approach time
  • Average crowding of the climbing routes
  • Average quality of the climbs
  • Scenic Quality of the Area
  • Travel Distance from home
  • Travel Time from home

Principal Climbing areas identified:

  • Northern Highlands
  • Creag Meagaidh
  • Ben Nevis
  • Glen Coe
  • Isle of Arran
  • Arrochar
  • The Cullins of Skye
  • The Cairngorms