Educational visits
Similar to outdoor recreation, the travel cost method has been applied to estimate the monetary
value of educational visits to UK freshwater areas. However, unlike outdoor recreation, only
admission fees to wetlands are included in the calculation. Visit time is not included in the monetary
valuation because these visits are undertaken by school pupils and the opportunity cost of their
visiting time could be assumed as zero. The data sources for the number of school pupils visiting
wetlands in the UK are discussed in an earlier section (Freshwater non-monetary ecosystem
services accounts). Other expenses such as transport costs and parking fees are also not included
because it is assumed that these pupils visit wetlands as part of a school trip and do not pay other
costs separately