A method to value nature-related webcam viewing: the value of virtual use with application to brown bear webcam viewing

ABSTRACT

There are an estimated 16,000 nature related remote web cameras that provide users around the world with an opportunity to view wildlife. Because there is no monetary price to view the webcams, we utilise variations in the viewers’ opportunity cost of time to estimate consumer surplus. We apply this model to a large sample (n = 2649) of the more than 10 million viewers of Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve brown bear webcams. The resulting consumer surplus is around $11 per hour of viewing. When applied to the 2.42 million viewer hours, this yields a benefit of $27 million annually. Since there are limits on the number of visitors as well as high costs of visiting this remote site, the aggregate webcam viewing value is more than twice the aggregate on-site viewing value. With minimal survey data required to apply this model, we believe it has broad applicability to other nature-related webcams around the world.

KEYWORDS:

• Bear viewing
• consumer surplus
• demand estimation
• opportunity cost of time
• virtual users
• webcams

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Explore.org for compiling aggregate viewer data for the Katmai National Park and Preserve bear webcams that was essential to estimating the aggregate benefits. We would like to thank Lynne Lewis and two anonymous referees for several valuable suggestions that helped to clarify details of the paper and point the way toward future research. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Park Service.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 https://wearesocial.com/special-reports/digital-in-2017-global-overview

2 Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

3 At the time of publication, data are not yet publicly available from Kansas State University.

4 https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm