Intercept and Recall: Examining Avidity Carryover in On-Site Collected Travel Data

This study examines the proper estimation of trip demand and economic benefits for visitors to recreation sites when past-season trip information is elicited from travelers intercepted on-site. We show that the proper weighting of past season counts is different from the standard on-site correction appropriate for current-season counts. We find that for our sample of lake visitors relatively stronger preference or “avidity” for the interview site carries over across seasons. We further show that using the correct weighting of past trip counts is critical in deriving meaningful estimates of travel demand and economic benefits.