Beyond Ticket Prices: Understanding the Value of England’s Historic Attractions Sites
England's historic attraction sites deliver significant economic and social value. But how do we measure this value in a way that captures the additional benefits people receive beyond just the ticketed experience?
This research funded by the DCMS Culture and Heritage Capital (CHC) programme and conducted by Historic England (HE) addresses this question using an economic technique known as the Travel Cost Method (TCM). TCM works by analysing how total expenses, including travel costs and the value of visitors' time influence their decisions to visit a site. By conducting this analysis, we capture benefits that go far beyond what is paid for entry.
Unique to this study is the integration of innovative mobile data analytics, providing a blueprint for evaluating historic attraction sites, both paid and free.
For paid sites, this shows the additional non-market value above and beyond their market value, whereas for free sites, this provides a value to sites otherwise not valued because there is no direct financial transaction. Using over 500,000 data points from English Heritage booking records and hundreds of thousands of anonymous mobile GPS data points, this research offers an improved understanding of visitor behaviour and site value.
What we found
The findings show that visitors gain far more than just a ticketed experience – they derive benefits that include cultural, educational, and recreational benefits. These benefits extend beyond market values, as traditional economics often focuses solely on transactions like ticket prices, leaving the broader significance of heritage visits unaccounted for.
Understanding these values is crucial for ensuring historic attraction sites are preserved and appreciated for generations to come.
- On average, visitors felt the experience was worth more than what they paid. The extra value they gained (known as consumer surplus) was £5.31 per person when using mobile data and £5.75 per person when using English Heritage data
- These findings highlight that heritage sites provide significant economic and cultural benefits to visitors, far beyond their market value. This includes the joy of exploring history, learning new things, and enjoying time in beautiful settings
- Across the 10 sites studied, this extra value was equivalent to 57% of the ticket price for sites analysed using English Heritage Trust data and 45% for sites analysed using mobile data
- The study found a strong match between the results from mobile data and traditional English Heritage records, showing that mobile data is a reliable way to measure the value of heritage sites
Across 10 sites, there is considerable additional benefit that historic attraction sites bring
Figure TCM 1: This bar chart shows the proportion of total value at historic sites that comes from direct market transactions (ticket prices) versus additional estimated non-market benefits (consumer surplus) as percentages.
Source: Colwill. T, Sajeev. M, & Milne. R (2025), Historic England
Methodology
The study used an established framework from the HM Treasury Green Book. An important aim of the study is to show the value of cultural heritage assets, not just in monetary terms, but also in the wider societal benefits it provides.
To better understand how visitors are distributed across different areas, we divided England into Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs), which are geographic regions used by the government for statistical analysis. Each of these zones was studied to determine how far people travel to visit heritage sites. For each MSOA, the study calculated the cost of travelling to heritage sites. This includes the money spent on travel as well as the value of time spent travelling to the heritage sites, known as 'the opportunity cost of time'.
The study then employed Zonal Travel Cost Method (ZTCM) to analyse the relationship between travel costs and visitor numbers. The study explored the relationship of how an increase in costs impacts demand to visit the site using a cross-sectional regression design. By understanding how demand interacts with cost, we can estimate what is known as the 'consumer surplus', which is the additional value that visitors perceive from their experience beyond what they paid for tickets or travel. This indicates that the benefits, including cultural, educational, and recreational aspects, extend beyond the monetary cost of entry.
We found positive consumer surplus across the 10 heritage sites that we looked at, with an average per capita consumer surplus figure of £4.83 for mobile data and £5.75 for English Heritage Trust data. The study underscores the importance of non-market values of cultural heritage, which could further understand and advocate for the value of England's cultural heritage, both in terms of tangible investments and intangible benefits.
Significance
By analysing these datasets independently, the study demonstrated the potential for mobile data to support and, in some cases, replace surveys or traditional booking data.
This is particularly interesting because:
- The English Heritage dataset, though not the primary focus of the study, served as a robust comparison to validate the accuracy and reliability of the mobile analytical data. The similar values evaluated between the 2 datasets supports the use of mobile data as a credible tool for evaluating visitor behaviour
- Many culturally significant sites lack direct monetary transactions (like ticket sales), making it difficult to understand and measure their value. Mobile data provides an affordable and scalable way to estimate their non-market values, capturing benefits that go beyond the simple price of entry
- English Heritage sites represent only a fraction of England's historic and cultural attractions. Smaller or free-to-enter sites, which often do not collect visitor data, can be evaluated using mobile analytics. This opens new possibilities for understanding and advocating for the value of lesser-known or underfunded sites
- Mobile data captures real-time anonymised visitor trends, which is absent in survey-based methods. This allows for more accurate and timely analysis of visitor trends, particularly useful for sites that experience fluctuating visitor numbers
Future research
Building on the success of this study, we aim to expand the application of the Travel Cost Method (TCM) study to include more sites and stakeholders. This will also cover free-to-enter sites, helping to show their value, which is often missed in traditional economic studies.
By mapping these values, we can better highlight the benefits heritage sites provide. This approach will also allow us to compare different sites and regions, giving useful insights for the heritage and the public sectors.
