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)

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 Visits i = f (Att i, Pop i, Sub i, Char i )

“Forest-related” spending (2)

“Forest-related” spending (3)

“Forest-associated” spending (1)

“Forest-associated” spending (2)

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 opportunity

Attitudes and tourist behaviour and spending (2) Forest Importance Scale

Attitudes and tourist behaviour and spending (3) 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