| Summary: | The writers present a simple random utility model of recreation site choice that incorporates an aggregate demand function for number of trips during a season. The trip demand function is derived using conventional demand theory, and this is used to calculate seasonal welfare changes due to improvements in site characteristics or addition of new sites. It is demonstrated that this demand model, which is based on N.E. Bockstael, W.M. Hanemann, and C.L. Kling's participation function, has several advantageous properties, including that the model explicitly manages the decision of whether to participate in recreation or not, allows for diminishing marginal utility of trips over the season, accommodates substitution between numbers of trips taken and quality of site visited, conducts welfare analysis at the seasonal level, explicitly allows for adjustment in number of trips taken as quality or number of sites in a person's opportunity set changes in the welfare analysis, and allows for substitutions between day and overnight trips.
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