Grandfather Mountain

1
Grandfather Mountain

• Jeb McRary
• Rachel Levy
• Kenneth Wehrmann
• Zach Caton
• Alexandra Greif

2
Purpose

• The purpose of our study was to determine whether
  the visibility (or lack thereof) at Grandfather
  Mountain was a factor in how many people were to
  visit the mountain.
• Pollution in recent years has remarkably
  decreased the visibility from observation points
  at Grandfather Mountain, but, seeing as the
  beautiful views are one of the main reasons for
  going at all, we wanted to see exactly how it
  would affect trafficking through the area.

3
Methods

• In order to collect the information needed, we
  created a survey which was distributed to people
  at the Grandfather Mountain Visitors Center.
• Some of the questions on the survey included how
  many miles visitors traveled to hike the
  mountain the importance of improving air
  quality reasons for visiting Grandfather
  Mountain whether or not improving air quality is
  necessary in improving visibility, etc.

4
Theory

• Our dependent variable was number of trips
• Our independent variables were haziness and
  distance from Grandfather.

5
Demand Curve
6
Data

• of observations 50
• Mean3.833 trips
• Min 1 trip
• Max 100 trips (lived very close)
• St. Dev 14.78

7
Statistical Results

• The results of the survey seemed to show that the
  perceived haziness, pollution, etc. was not a
  statistically significant factor in the number of
  trips taken to Grandfather Mountain.
• However, people living in close proximity were
  more likely to visit the mountain, which did have
  an effect on our stats regarding the financial
  cost and time allotted in taking the trip.

  Coefficients Standard Error t Stat
Intercept 2.348809 0.178999 13.12187
Travel Cost -0.28636 0.035599 -8.04393
Haziness of GF 0.086485 0.1204 0.718319
Close Proximity (60 miles) -0.35371 0.06146 -5.75518
8
Graphical Results
9
Consumer Surplus

• Double-log model, since If b gt -1 CS 1/(b
  1) x max(P) x min(Q) PQ
• CS x 250,000 visitors/year annual benefit of GF
• CS105.29250000 26,323,249 annual benefit of GF

10
Conclusions

• Pollution not as big a factor as cost of travel
• Consumers make their decisions on visiting based
  on financial reasons