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at all. An online survey captured the responses of 1851 North Carolina
residents who made use of the state's water trails. The survey focused
on other aspects beyond WtP, such as respondents' perception of pad-
dling as an economic development tool, but only the WtP element is
discussed in this example.
Tables 7.5 and 7.6 show the profile of paddlers who were supportive
of various funding sources, and those who were generally unsupportive,
respectively. According to Table 7.5, user fees had more support from
women and paddlers with a mean household income above $100,000.
There was also greater support for craft registration compared to an
equipment tax. Fewer people supported the idea of paddling licenses.
With regard to funding preferences of paddlers who were less likely
to support fundraising mechanisms, Table 7.6 shows these to be predomi-
nantly male, employed in the private sector, avid paddlers with high skill
levels and who own a boat. As for paddling as an economic development
tool, some funding mechanisms were supported. For instance, user fees
were supported by paddlers where household income exceeded $100,000,
and equipment tax was the preferred funding preference among men.
Craft registration elicited the support of recreational paddlers, and among
those who rent kayaks or canoes, the latter also supporting a paddling
license fee (see Table 7.7). There is still, however, a strong lack of support
across the board for fundraising, even though people recognize paddle
trails as an economic development tool for North Carolina.
Kline et al. (2012) concluded that the optimal funding strategy could
be a combination of boat registration and user fees for those who rent
Table 7.5 Summary of funding preferences of North Carolina paddlers more likely
to support funding mechanisms
Variable
User
fees
Equipment
tax
Craft
registration
License
Women paddlers
Public sector employees
Non-profi t sector employees
Recreational paddlers
Paddlers who rent kayak
Paddlers with household
income of $100k-$149k
Source: After Kline et al. (2012: 249).
( Continued )
 
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