Usage and valuation of natural parks in Catalonia, 2001-2002

We present results on the use and valuation of parks and natural areas in Catalonia. A structural random utility model is used to estimate utility per recreational trip, and a reduced form model is used to estimate the number of trips. The two together give an estimate of the overall flow of utility over course of the season. Welfare e ects due to changes in availabilities of sites can be deduced from changes in overall utility. For many of the sites, compensating variation for loss of access is estimated to be of the magnitude of dozens of millions of euros, annually.