Analyzing the effect of site quality on Tennessee reservoir fishing site selection using a random utility model

Random Utility Models (RUM) are an extensively used modeling structure in the field of recreational demand studies. They are particularly useful when recreationists may choose from a large number of alternative recreational sites. Anglers in Tennessee have a large number of reservoirs available for fishing, each of which varies in site quality and access costs. Using survey data, models of angler site selection are empirically estimated for the major reservoirs in Tennessee, and benefit measures for changes in site fishing quality are calculated. Because RUM models are sensitive to the set of included sites, two different regional modelling strategies were tested.