RPTS 616

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RPTS 616

• Lecture 1

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What is this course about?

• See syllabus read carefully!
• Note requirements/no make ups
• Primarily Economics of Outdoor Recreation
• As opposed to bowling, indoor leisure

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Outdoor Recreation

• Impacts (host community changes)
• Much more important to me/us
• Values to the person doing it
• Why does a person do it?
• Where does a person go?
• How often does a person go there?
• Ties to site amenities (characteristics)
• Are different activities really different?

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Economics Inputs

• Activity as an Output to be produced
• Are the previous activities different? Do they
  use different types of inputs?
• Q f(Labor, Capital, Resources)

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Camping
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Skiing
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Water-Based (Boating)
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Water-Based (water skiing)
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Climbing
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Climbing Indoors
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Differences Again?

• Are Risky Sports Different than other ones?
• Is an indoor experience the same as an outdoor
  one? Why do some people do indoor sports, while
  others go outside?

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Some Other Issues

• Too many to list, but
• Overcrowding
• Recovering money to run facilities
• Fees
• Environmental quality degradation
• New development
• Development vs. natural habitats/preserves
• Ecotourism a myth?

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Impacts/Fees
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Impacts (fees again)
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So, Where do we go?

• Learn Some basic economics
• supply and demand
• utility maximization
• budget constraints
• aggregation of supply and demand/markets
• cost functions
• regional economics

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The Problem we face

• No existing book
• Small Class

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Possible Solutions

• Survey the class members
• How many have had any economics?
• How are you in mathematics?
• What is your goal?
• Solution?
• Lots of handouts, articles e-mailed them?
• Or, put up a WebCT site (can they help?)

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Please send me

• Your e-mail address e-mail to me
  (wdshaw_at_ag.tamu.edu)
• One idea is to e-mail each student the lecture
  in power point. Would that work?
• Or, put up a Web-CT site.