Perceived Health Benefits and Willingness to Pay for Parks by Park Users: Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Abstract

Whilst a growing body of evidence demonstrates people derive a range of health and wellbeing benefits from visiting parks, only a limited number of attempts have been made to provide a complementary economic assessment of parks. The aim of this exploratory study was to directly estimate the perceived health and wellbeing benefits attained from parks and the economic value assigned to parks by park users in Victoria, Australia. The research employed a mixed methods approach (survey and interviews) to collect primary data from a selection of 140 park users: 100 from two metropolitan parks in Melbourne and 40 from a park on the urban fringe of Melbourne, Victoria. Our findings suggest that park users derive a range of perceived physical, mental/spiritual, and social health benefits, but park use was predominantly associated with physical health benefits. Overall, our exploratory study findings suggest that park users are willing to pay for parks, as they highly value them as places for exercising, socialising, and relaxing. Importantly, most people would miss parks if they did not exist. The findings aim to provide park managers, public health advocates, and urban policy makers with evidence about the perceived health and wellbeing benefits of park usage and the economic value park visitors place on parks.

Addressing Inequity: Evaluation of an Intervention to Improve Accessibility and Quality of a Green Space

“…Studies have also suggested that the ideal distance is within 300-400 m since longer distance shows rapid decline in use [56]. Studies have also shown that residents' value greatly and are even willing to pay for having green spaces that are pleasant and easily accessible in their neighbourhoods [58][59][60].…”

How Urban Parks Offer Opportunities for Physical Activity in Dublin, Ireland

“…Those individuals with very good access to large, attractive, public open spaces were 50% more likely to achieve high levels of walking [ 12 ], and, in another study, the majority of park users engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity [ 13 ]. Many benefits can be obtained by users of parks, but physical health benefits were found to be the main ones [ 14 ].…”

Visitors’ Perceived Place Value and the Willingness to Pay in an Urban Lake Park

“…As such, urban parks offer a wide range of benefits, which are physical, psychological, aesthetic, environmental, economic, social, cultural, historical, recreational, etc. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ], and pursue different core values according to visitors’ perceptions [ 8 , 9 , 10 ].…”

“…Previous research has found that people with higher perceived value have higher rates of satisfaction and intention to revisit [ 17 , 18 ]. Thus, the perceived value has a positive effect on the behavior of users [ 5 ]. As services and activities in parks have become more diverse, the values of parks have also become more diverse.…”