Determining the recreational value of forest park by travel cost method and defining its effective factors

Abstract

Considering the importance of recreation and excursions in household's basket of expenditures on the one hand, and not paying attention to the economic value of recreational function for natural resources and environment as non-market goods on the other hand, this paper was written with the aim of estimating the recreational value of Shahid Zare Sari Forest Park when using the individual travel cost method. Requested data sets were obtained by completing questionnaires from 302 individuals who visited the above-mentioned park in 2012-2013. In the individual travel cost method, for the investigation of distributional effects of variables on the number of travels, a linear regression model was applied. For this purpose the travel generation function using linear, double log, linear-log and log-linear forms was estimated. Among these forms, according to the econometrical parameter, a linear function was selected and parameters were estimated based on the method of ordinary least squares. The consumer surplus was 12.53 USD per each visit and the annual recreational value of 72,500 people who visited the park annually was 52,558 USD·ha -1 . The findings also showed that the involved variables, travel costs, income and visitor's distance were statistically significant at 1% level and family and education were significant at 5% level. Results revealed that forest parks have a considerable recreational value that, from this point of view, can help programmers and executives, social and economic managers in the preservation planning and sustainable utilization of natural resources.

Identifying the determining factors of recreation demand in Kongar Lake of South Sumatera: An individual travel cost approach

“…The travel cost method is a non-market procedure which seeks to place a value on a recreational object by using consumption behavior in related markets (Fleming & Cook, 2008;Pirikiya et al, 2016). The underlying assumption in TCM approaches is that the place value is equal to the costs respondents pay to use that place.…”

“…Several resource-rich developing countries have begun to make tourism a sector that drives economic growth (Pirikiya et al, 2016). However, the problem in each region is the difficulty of assessing environmental resources that have high economic value.…”

“…Assessment of the economic value of natural resources provides a tool to measure the value of money from goods and services provided by natural resources through specific valuation techniques (Dixon & Sherman, 1990;Pirikiya et al, 2016;Suhel & Bashir, 2018). Goods and services produced from natural and environmental resources include aspects such as economic value, recreational value, aesthetic value, and environment value.…”

“…Goods and services produced from natural and environmental resources include aspects such as economic value, recreational value, aesthetic value, and environment value. Those aspects cannot be traded, and thus it is difficult to obtain data on the price and quantity of goods and services, particularly as they relate to the assessment of natural resources (Pirikiya et al, 2016). The value generated from natural resources can be categorized as ordinal use values because the benefits derived from consuming goods cannot be quantified.…”

“…As an example, positive impacts in tourism development can be in the form of increased public incomes, increasing the country's foreign exchange, availability of jobs, and the availability of new business potential for the community, which also helps to raise awareness of the community to preserve the environment. Meanwhile, the negative impacts from tourism development arise in the form of the destruction of these attractions, both of buildings and environment (Pirikiya et al, 2016;Zaei & Zaei, 2013).…”