Natural capital - importance to the Scottish economy: research

Appendix 4: Tourism and Outdoor Leisure Activities (T&OL)

This section provides a continuation of the methodological details underpinning the eftec analysis on the natural capital-related expenditure related to T&OL activities.

To distinguish between the natural capital-related expenditure component across the three surveys related to T&OL activities, spending was aggregated from the 21 activities identified in the previous eftec study. A reconciliation process was previously undertaken in this study to align expenditure categories from GB Day Visitor Survey (GBDVS) and the GB Tourism Survey (GBTS) so that expenditure could be treated consistently from both surveys. A full list of expenditure categories can be found in the eftec 2019 report.

The approach also adopted the same approach to determine the proportion of expenditure attributed to each activity.^[56] This includes money spent on aspects such as accommodation, food and drink, and transport, as well as any direct costs associated with engaging in the activity. The attribution method aims to deal with the common situation in which multiple activities are identified as motivating the trip, and therefore the expenditure needs to be subdivided across them, but not double-counted. Further detail on the specific steps can be found in the eftec 2019 report.

Following the estimation of the attributable expenditure by category, a systematic approach developed in the previous study was applied to identify the extent that the activity relied on natural capital to determine:

• The extent to which the activity would occur without ecosystems; and
• The extent to which the activity occurred without other capital.

This is done for each location type where the activity can occur, which is divided into three broad categories: built-up, rural and coastal. This process accounted for the fact that ecosystem dependence may vary by activity subject to the location that the activity takes place. A full worked example of this approach can be found in the eftec 2019 report.