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