England
Fieldwork for the "Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment" (MENE) started in March 2009, collecting information on visits to the outdoors in England. The survey is headed by Natural England with support from Defra and the Forestry Commission. Results show an estimated 317 million trips that include a visit to woodland in 2009/10 and 326 million such trips in 2010/11. Full information on the survey can be seen on the Natural England website.
The England Leisure Visits Survey (ELVS) 2005 included trips taken in England by respondents living in England, from February 2005 to February 2006. It was led and co-ordinated by the Countryside Agency (now Natural England) and sponsored by a consortium of agencies with an interest in recreation and tourism in England.
The main aims of the survey were to measure the extent of participation in Leisure Visits and to estimate the total number of Leisure Visits and their economic value. The survey also provides details of visitor and trip characteristics, activities undertaken and destination of visits. The number of trips to woodland was estimated at 170 million.
The main results from the 2005 ELVS were published with a news release in January 2007, in the form of a main report, technical report, headline facts leaflet and full supporting data, available from the Natural England website.
Scotland
A Scottish Recreation Survey began in 2003. Sponsored by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Forestry Commission, the survey collects information about visits to the outdoors for leisure and recreation. The first two annual reports (2003/4 and 2004/5) and the first five calendar year reports (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009) have been published on the SNH website. Key findings from the 2010 survey and data files for 2005 - 2010 are also available on the SNH website.
An improved method of analysis was introduced starting from the 2007 report, and applied to previous data. It is now estimated that the Scottish population made around 60 - 70 million recreation visits a year to woodland in Scotland.
An updated Technical Report published in 2010 is available from the SNH website. It describes the survey methods used in detail, including details of fieldwork approaches, sampling and data analysis methods. It replaces the 2004/05 Technical Report and also provides details of changes made to the questionnaire in September 2005 and changes made to data weighting procedures and sampling procedures between 2007 and 2009. The methods outlined in this report will continue to be used until surveying is completed in 2013.
Visit Scotland run the Visitor Experience survey annually, which gains insight into visitor's expectations of their holiday in Scotland and what they do on it.
The Forestry Commission joined with Highlands & Islands Enterprise in sponsoring the Highland Visitor Survey 2002-03, which provides information about visitors and their visit to the area.
Wales
A partnership of the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) and Forestry Commission Wales (FCW) commissioned the Wales Outdoor Recreation Survey (WORS). The main survey ran for 12 months, with fieldwork undertaken between January 2008 and January 2009.
Headline figures for 2008 were released on 17th September 2009 along with detailed tables of results. The findings represent the responses of residents of Wales on their use of the outdoors, places visited, including woodlands, motivations for using the outdoors, barriers to visiting the outdoors and the ‘latent demand’ for outdoor recreation. View the release.
A more comprehensive report and briefing notes on particular topics will be published in autumn 2010.
Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) and Forestry Commission Wales (FCW) have commissioned the survey to run again in 2011.
GB
Day Visits Surveys were carried out in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2002-03, for a consortium of government departments and agencies interested in tourism and recreation. The surveys provided estimates of the total number of leisure day visits from home to towns, countryside and seaside in Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales). They also gave the demographic profile of visitors and attributes of the visits such as duration and distance.
Trips to woodland were identified by the surveys. The reported number of trips to woodland in GB increased from around 300 million in 1994 to around 350 million in 1998, but then fell to around 250 million in 2002-03. More details on the first three surveys are available in Forestry Statistics 2002, Tables 5.1 and 5.2.
The main results from the 2002/03 GB survey were published in June 2004, in the form of a summary leaflet and main report, available from the Natural England website. The main report contains detailed tables (on a CD-ROM), including information about woodland trips.
