- Home
- Agricultural Economics
- Animal and Food Sciences
- Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering
- Community and Leadership Development
- Entomology
- Extension and Education
- Extension Administration
- Forestry
- Horticulture
- Human Environmental Sciences
- Landscape Architecture
- Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center
- Plant Pathology
- Plant and Soil Sciences
- Veterinary Science
Search research reports:
Estimation of Demand for Equestrian Trail Recreational Activities in Kentucky
A. Pagoulatos, W. Hu, J. Stowe
Department of Agricultural Economics
Non-Technical Summary
Given the importance of the equine industry for the Kentucky economy and the usage of trails by regular Kentucky or nearby state residents, it is imperative to ensure this resource is managed properly to support sustainable long-term development. This project will serve a unique role of providing an inventory of current equine trail conditions based on ecological, geographic, economics and socio-demographic information of the stakeholders.
A subsequent role of this research is to assess actual demand for these trails from an economic perspective. This type of demand is closely related to the benefit these trails provide to the society. Thus, this study helps understanding social benefit of horse-riding trails so that the information can be used for comprehensive assessment of benefit versus cost of these trails to the state, which contributes to the overall consideration of the equine industry and economic welfare of the residents.
This study will contribute to the effort already underway at the University of Kentucky, which examines the determinants of recreation demand for equestrian trails in Kentucky. We plan to determine consumer surplus values for trails in Kentucky as well as recommend either improvements in present equine trails and or location and characteristics of possible new trails. We also intend to derive spending patterns for equestrians that can be combined with secondary information to determine economic impacts.
2009 Project Description
Collection of the data has started not only with personal interviews at various trails around the state but also by creating and administering a web based questionnaire to different equestrian groups in the state. The on line survey is necessary to obtain more information at a lesser cost. Whether on site and on line information can be used together will depend on whether it is found that there are significant differences in the two data sets. Preliminary results show that a randomly selected trail-rider will more than likely be female (GENDER), averages 45.3 years in age (AGE), holds at least an associate's degree, and enjoys an average annual household income of $64,940 (INCOME). A typical trail-rider travels an average of 66.36 miles (DISTANCE) to get to the designated site and spends an average of 83.01 minutes to get there (TIME). Almost 57 percent of the survey respondents stayed overnight on at least one of their trips (ONSTAY); 31.39 percent of all trips resulted in overnight stays. The average number of trips that resulted in an overnight stay was 0.9; the average number of nights spent per overnight trip was 1.69. Nearly eighty-three percent of the nights were spent camping on-site (CAMP), 9.06 percent were spent in a cabin (CABIN), 5.78 percent were spent camping nearby (NEARBY), and 2.34 percent were spent in a hotel (HOTEL). In addition, one-third of the respondents who stayed in a cabin were also owners of the cabin. The average annual number of trips to a particular site (TRIPS) was 10.85 (with a sample variance of 192.93).
2009 Impact
Given the importance of the equine industry for the Kentucky economy and the usage of trails by Kentucky or nearby state residents, it is imperative to ensure this resource is managed properly to support sustainable long-term development. This project will serve a unique role of providing an inventory of current equine trail conditions based on ecological, geographic, economics and socio-demographic information of the stakeholders.
A subsequent role of this research is to assess actual demand for these trails from an economic perspective. This type of demand is closely related to the benefit these trails provide to the society. Thus, this study helps understand the social benefit of horse-riding trails so that the information can be used for comprehensive assessment of benefit versus cost of these trails to the state, which contributes to the overall consideration of the equine industry and economic welfare of the residents.
This study will contribute to the effort already underway at the University of Kentucky, which examines the determinants of recreation demand for equestrian trails in Kentucky. We plan to determine consumer surplus values for trails in Kentucky as well as recommend either improvements in present equine trails and or location and characteristics of possible new trails. We also intend to derive spending patterns for equestrians that can be combined with secondary information to determine economic impacts.
2009 Publications
M.Blackwell, A. Pagoulatos, W. Hu, and K. Auchter. Recreational Demand for Equestrian Trail-Riding. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review. 38/2 (October 2009)229-235.