IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/apl/wpaper/25-04.html

Willingness to travel with increased travel time:Comparison of payment card vs dichotomous choice questions

Author

Listed:
  • John C. Whitehead
  • Pamela Wicker

Abstract

This study examines how changes in travel time affects participants’ intention to revisit a sport event and how willingness to travel (WTT) questions and resulting willingness to pay (WTP) estimates differ depending on the question format. The analysis relied on post-race online survey data of participants of a running event in the United States (n=592). WTT questions were assessed with payment card (multiple cost levels) and dichotomous choice formats (single cost level). Hypothetical travel cost increase was framed as additional travel time rather than travel distance. Results reveal that respondents are less likely to participate as travel time rises, while higher-income respondents are more likely to return. The payment card question format generates greater travel cost sensitivity than the dichotomous choice format, while yielding higher WTP estimates. The study introduced travel time as a valid payment vehicle and offered evidence of how different question formats affect WTT and WTP. Key Words: Intention to revisit; Monetary valuation; Sport event; Sport tourism; Travel cost; Willingness to pay

Suggested Citation

  • John C. Whitehead & Pamela Wicker, 2025. "Willingness to travel with increased travel time:Comparison of payment card vs dichotomous choice questions," Working Papers 25-04, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    • Handle: RePEc:apl:wpaper:25-04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://econ.appstate.edu/RePEc/pdf/wp2504.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Whitehead, John C. & Wicker, Pamela, 2018. "Estimating willingness to pay for a cycling event using a willingness to travel approach," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 160-169.
    2. van Cranenburgh, S. & Chorus, C.G. & van Wee, B., 2014. "Vacation behaviour under high travel cost conditions – A stated preference of revealed preference approach," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 105-118.
    3. Meltzer, David O. & Jena, Anupam B., 2010. "The economics of intense exercise," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 347-352, May.
    4. W. Michael Hanemann, 1984. "Welfare Evaluations in Contingent Valuation Experiments with Discrete Responses," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 66(3), pages 332-341.
    5. John C. Whitehead & Melissa S. Weddell & Peter A. Groothuis, 2016. "Mitigating Hypothetical Bias In Stated Preference Data: Evidence From Sports Tourism," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(1), pages 605-611, January.
    6. Chae, Dong-Ryul & Wattage, Premachandra & Pascoe, Sean, 2012. "Recreational benefits from a marine protected area: A travel cost analysis of Lundy," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 971-977.
    7. Gregory L. Poe & Kelly L. Giraud & John B. Loomis, 2005. "Computational Methods for Measuring the Difference of Empirical Distributions," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(2), pages 353-365.
    8. John C. Whitehead & Bruce K. Johnson & Daniel S. Mason & Gordon J. Walker, 2013. "Consumption Benefits Of National Hockey League Game Trips Estimated From Revealed And Stated Preference Demand Data," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 1012-1025, January.
    9. Edward Ezzy & Helen Scarborough & Anne Wallis, 2012. "Recreational Value of Southern Bluefin Tuna Fishing," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 31(2), pages 150-159, June.
    10. Hyun, Moonsup & Jordan, Jeremy S., 2020. "Athletic goal achievement: A critical antecedent of event satisfaction, re-participation intention, and future exercise intention in participant sport events," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 256-270.
    11. Catherine Heyes & Anthony Heyes, 1999. "Willingness to Pay Versus Willingness to Travel: Assessing the Recreational Benefits from Dartmoor National Park," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 124-139, January.
    12. W. Michael Hanemann, 1989. "Welfare Evaluations in Contingent Valuation Experiments with Discrete Response Data: Reply," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 71(4), pages 1057-1061.
    13. Pamela Wicker, 2019. "The carbon footprint of active sport participants," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 513-526, October.
    14. Moonsup Hyun & Jeremy S. Jordan, 2020. "Athletic goal achievement: A critical antecedent of event satisfaction, re-participation intention, and future exercise intention in participant sport events," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 256-270, April.
    15. Peter Groothuis & Kurt Rotthoff & John Whitehead, 2023. "The Consumer Surplus and Economic Impact of a Participatory Micro-Event: The Beech Mountain Metric," Sports Economics, Management, and Policy, in: Victor A. Matheson & Robert Baumann (ed.), The Economic Impact of Sports Facilities, Franchises, and Events, pages 89-99, Springer.
    16. Wicker, Pamela, 2019. "The carbon footprint of active sport participants," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 513-526.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John C. Whitehead & Pamela Wicker, 2024. "The effect of event quality on participants’ intention to revisit a sport event: Monetary valuation and mitigation of hypothetical bias," Working Papers 24-14, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    2. Whitehead, John C. & Wicker, Pamela, 2018. "Estimating willingness to pay for a cycling event using a willingness to travel approach," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 160-169.
    3. John C. Whitehead & Pamela Wicker, 2018. "Valuing Non-Market Benefits of Participatory Sport Events Using Willingness to Travel: Payment Card vs Random Selection with Mitigation of Hypothetical Bias," Working Papers 18-06, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    4. Maria Salvo & Giuseppe Cucuzza & Giovanni Signorello, 2022. "Using discrete choice experiments to explore how bioecological attributes of sites drive birders’ preferences and willingness to travel," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 24(2), pages 119-146, April.
    5. Tim F. Thormann & Pamela Wicker, 2024. "Environmentally-Friendly Stadium Travel of Football Fans: A Stated Preferences Study," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 25(1), pages 3-29, January.
    6. Pamela Wicker & John C. Whitehead & Bruce K. Johnson & Daniel S. Mason, 2017. "The effect of sporting success and management failure on attendance demand in the Bundesliga: a revealed and stated preference travel cost approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(52), pages 5287-5295, November.
    7. John C. Whitehead & Pamela Wicker, 2017. "Using Willingness to Travel to Estimate the Monetary Value of Intangible Benefits Derived from Active Sport Event Tourism," Working Papers 17-03, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    8. John C. Whitehead & Tim Haas & Lynne Lewis & Leslie Richardson & Pete Schuhmann, 2025. "A Meta-Analysis of SBC Contingent Valuation: Willingness to Pay Estimates, Determinants of Reliability and Replication of Split-Sample Hypothesis Tests," Working Papers 25-11, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    9. John C. Whitehead & Pamela Wicker, 2019. "Examining return visitation and the monetary value of participatory sport events: The role of attribute non-attendance," Working Papers 19-13, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    10. Cooper, Joseph C., 2002. "Flexible Functional Form Estimation of Willingness to Pay Using Dichotomous Choice Data," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 267-279, March.
    11. Silvana Janeth Correa-Henao, Laura Cristina Henao-Colorado, Héctor Alonso Monroy-Escudero, Jorge Iván Brand-Ortiz Oscar Eduardo Ávila-Rodríguez, 2021. "Determinantes de la lealtad en la relación entre la Liga Antioquena de Tenis de Campo y sus clientes," Revista CEA, Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano, vol. 7(15), pages 1-24.
    12. Bujosa Bestard, Angel & Riera Font, Antoni, 2021. "Attribute range effects: Preference anomaly or unexplained variance?," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    13. Lorber, Connor & Dittrich, Ruth & Jones, Sharon & Junge, Alex, 2021. "Is hiking worth it? A contingent valuation case study of Multnomah Falls, Oregon," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    14. Pandit, Ram & Dhakal, Maheshwar & Polyakov, Maksym, 2015. "Valuing access to protected areas in Nepal: The case of Chitwan National Park," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-12.
    15. John C. Whitehead, "undated". "A Comment on “An Adding Up Test on Contingent Valuations of River and Lake Quality”," Working Papers 17-01_R, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    16. Brugnaro, Caetano, 2010. "Valuing Riparian Forests Restoration: a CVM Application in Corumbatai River Basin," Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural (RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 48(3), January.
    17. Richard T. Carson, 2011. "Contingent Valuation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2489, March.
    18. LeVert, Michael & Stevens, Thomas & Kittredge, Dave, 2009. "Willingness-to-sell conservation easements: A case study," Journal of Forest Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 261-275, December.
    19. Ilaria Rodella & Fabio Albino Madau & Donatella Carboni, 2020. "The Willingness to Pay for Beach Scenery and Its Preservation in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-28, February.
    20. Manuel Frondel & Stephan Sommer & Lukas Tomberg, 2021. "WTA-WTP Disparity: The Role of Perceived Realism of the Valuation Setting," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 97(1), pages 196-206.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:apl:wpaper:25-04. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: O. Ashton Morgan (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deappus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.