The Hedonic Travel Cost Method

Abstract

The hedonic travel cost method is a technique which reveals how much users are willing to pay for the individual characteristics of outdoor recreation sites. The prices of recreation attributes are estimated by regressing travel costs on the bundles of characteristics associated with each of several potential destination sites. The demand for site characteristics on site quality is then revealed by comparing the site selection of users facing different attribute prices. The technique is applied to value steelhead fish density in Washington State streams.