Regulating Congestion with Fee-Based versus Nonfee Management Measures: Application of a Repeated Random Utility Model to Outdoor Recreation

Open-access policies for coastal recreation areas in France can negatively impact landscape quality and lead to crowding. Our main objective is to simulate the effects of using public policies to regulate access to these sites. We estimate a repeated random utility model to explain the choice of participating and visiting coastal sites with a congestion variable. Since congestion is a result of a Nash equilibrium and is likely to be endogenous, an instrumental variable approach is used to both estimate congestion at the visitation equilibrium and control for its endogeneity. We use data from a survey of visitors to 43 coastal sites in western France (Brittany). When congestion is instrumented, it becomes a deterrent attribute in the choice of visiting a coastal area. We then simulate alternative access management policies and find that a mix of parking fees and increased walking distances at site entrances have the greatest effect on reducing congestion.