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Are Mobile Device Location Data a Substitute for Travel Cost Surveys?

Mobile device location data offer a low-cost alternative for measuring visitation to outdoor recreation sites and are known to correlate with official visitation counts. Less is known about whether these data can recover recreation demand and consumer surplus comparable to survey-based methods. We c...

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Publicado en:Land Economics Vol. 102; no. 3; pp. 400 - 418
Autores principales: Bayham, Jude, Enriquez, Aaron J., Richardson, Leslie
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: University of Wisconsin Press Aug2026
Materias:
United States. National Park Service
National parks & reserves
Travel costs
Location data
Sampling errors
Acquisition of data
Recreation industry
Regression analysis
Consumers' surplus
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Sumario:Mobile device location data offer a low-cost alternative for measuring visitation to outdoor recreation sites and are known to correlate with official visitation counts. Less is known about whether these data can recover recreation demand and consumer surplus comparable to survey-based methods. We compare travel cost models estimated using mobile device and survey data for 17 US National Park Service sites. Results are mixed. We examine the roles of aggregation and sampling bias and use a LASSO regression to assess whether sample and site characteristics explain discrepancies.