Question

Assume staff at the lake has records of the number of visitors and their zip codes. This will be used to calculate the total number of visits per zone over the last year. To extend the value of the analysis, explain the value of more precise data and what it takes to analyze this additional data.

Answer 1

The additional data required for analysis of number of visitors to lake are transportation costs of visitors, entry fee to lake, salaries and allowances to lake staff and licensing cost of lake owner.

i. Transportation costs of visitors: The transportation costs of visitors are the cost of transportation of individuals to visit the lake. People may visit the lake using road, air or water transportation that involves some costs.

ii. Entry fee to lake:: Entry fee to lake is the fee charged by lake owner to visitors. Apart from entry fee, lake management may also charge additional fees to visitors for using facilities at lake premise such as boats, fishing nets etc.

iii. Salaries and allowances to lake staff: The salaries and allowances to lake staff is costs of lake owner to run and maintain the lake facilities.

iv. Licensing fee for lake: State government may impose licensing fee for owners of lakes in their region. The licensing fee may vary from different states.

The visitors' flow to lake depends on the transportation costs, entry fees and lake facilities. Similarly lake owner may continue to offer public access to his lake facilities as long as the lake owner gets maximum profits from public usage of his lake. However frequency of visitors also depends on many other factors such as economic and political conditions of the visitors' country, transport networks to lake and others.