Exploring the shelf-life of travel cost methods of valuing recreation for benefits transfer

•We test the stability of angler’s willingness to pay (WTP) for recreational fishing over long time periods using survey collected in 1988, 1996 and 2007 in the New York State employing travel cost method (TCM).•Our estimates suggest that anglers’ WTP for fishing WTP in 1988 and 1996 were similar, with values per trip at $35.2 and $36.4 respectively, but decreased significantly to $30.6 in 2007.•The value decrease is consistent with two salient features of 2017 survey: (1) Long distance trips, such as those to the Great Lakes were less frequent; (2) anglers were, on average, older than in previous surveys. This study tests the stability of willingness to pay (WTP) for recreational fishing over two decades based on three rounds of a representative angler survey conducted in New York State in 1988, 1996, and 2007. We employ the travel cost method (TCM) by using the repeated conditional logit and mixed logit models to estimate demand for daily fishing trips. Our estimates suggest that anglers’ WTP for fishing in 1988 and 1996 were similar, with values per trip at $35.2 and $36.4, respectively. However, there was a noticeable decrease in WTP, to $30.6, in 2007. This decrease is consistent with two salient features of the 2007 survey: (1) long-distance trips, such as those to the Great Lakes were less frequent, and (2) anglers were, on average, older than in previous surveys.