FORESTS’ ROLE IN TOURISM
COST E33 meeting
“Forests for Recreation and Nature Tourism”
1st November 2004
Pat Snowdon
Economics and Statistics
Forestry Commission
Background
• forest policy– timber production– recreation– environment– rural and urban development
• economic drivers– timber– non-market outputs– ‘green infrastructure’
Forestry in the British Economy
• over 29,000 jobs
• £290 million income, directly generated by forestry, logging and related services
• around 12% of land cover is forestry
• the UK imports approx. 85% of its wood products
• over 250 million leisure visits to GB forests
Timber Prices(FE Standing Timber Sales)
Standing Sales Price Index for Great Britain (September 1996=100, real terms)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
30-S
ep-7
3
31-M
ar-
75
30-S
ep-7
6
31-M
ar-
78
30-S
ep-7
9
31-M
ar-
81
30-S
ep-8
2
31-M
ar-
84
30-S
ep-8
5
31-M
ar-
87
30-S
ep-8
8
31-M
ar-
90
30-S
ep-9
1
31-M
ar-
93
30-S
ep-9
4
31-M
ar-
96
30-S
ep-9
7
31-M
ar-
99
30-S
ep-0
0
31-M
ar-
02
Year Ending
Ind
ex (
1996=100)
Forests’ Role in Tourism - introduction (1)
Study aims
(i) quantify the “economic significance” of
a. “forest-related” spending
b. “forest-associated” spending
(ii) measure the attitudes of forest visitors towards environment & forests, and the links to behaviour
Introduction (2)
Concepts
“economic significance”
“tourism day visit”
“forest-related”
“forest site”
“attitude”
“Forest-related” spending (1)
Model the volume of visits to individual forests
Identify levels of day visitor expenditure
Apportion forest related day visitor expenditure
Apply to sample of sites
Estimate forest-related tourism expenditure for sample sites
Estimate economic significance of forest-related tourism at the country and GB level
Visitsi = f (Atti, Popi, Subi, Chari)
“Forest-related” spending (2)
“Forest-related” spending (3)
44.7% of spending by forest visitors was forest-related
Forest-related tourism day visit expenditure
England Scotland Wales GB
£ million 2,054 163 51 2,268
% of all tourismexpenditure
3.4 2.5 1.8 3.3
“Forest-associated” spending (1)
“Forest-associated” spending (2)
Proportion of tourism expenditure in thecountryside that is "forest-associated" (%)
NewForest
LakeDistrict
Trossachs Borders WyeValley
Snow-donia
AVR.
15 12 13 11 17 12 13
Attitudes and tourist behaviour and spending (1)
Environ-mental values
General attitudes to importance of forests
Behaviour: active and passive forest use
Expenditure on active and passive forest use
op
po
rtun
ity
Attitudes and tourist behaviour and spending (2)
1 Forests are an important part of our national heritage.
2 Forests for recreation and leisure are important for thewellbeing of the nation.
3 Our landscape would look just as beautiful even if therewere no forests
4 We should view the wildlife and plants in our forests asa national treasure
5 Forests offer me little or no opportunities for leisure andrecreation.
6 Visiting forests is important for my wellbeing.
7 I feel perfectly safe when visiting forests
8 Forests make great holiday destinations for me and myfamily
Forest Importance Scale
Attitudes and tourist behaviour and spending (3)
1 A clean environment provides me with betteropportunities for recreation
2 Environmental protection will provide a better world forme and my children
3 Tropical rainforests are essential to maintaining ahealthy planet earth
4 Environmental protection is beneficial to my health
5 Environmental protection benefits everyone
6 The effects of pollution on public health are worse thanwe realise
General Awareness and Consequences (GAC) environmental attitude scale
Attitudes and tourist behaviour and spending (4)
• strong correlation between forest attitudes and general environmental attitudes
• high scores on FIS more likely to:
– visits forests frequently
– stay longer
– seek another forest if first choice not accessible
Conclusions
• almost half of day trip spending by tourists visiting a forest is “forest-related”
• forests are a major factor in the spending of visitors to wider countryside
• inter-dependence between forestry and tourism in rural areas (externalities)
• attitudes help to explain behaviour of visitors