Economic Valuation of an Urban Lake Recreational Park: Case of Taman Tasik Cempaka in Bandar Baru Bangi, Malaysia

Abstract

There is growing public support for an outdoor, nature-based urban park, which offers the local population a wide range of recreational services for an improved quality of life. This study estimates the economic value of recreational benefits for the case of a lake-based urban park known as Taman Tasik Cempaka (TTC) in Bandar Baru Bangi in Selangor, Malaysia. The Travel Cost Method (TCM) was used to generate the demand function for park visitation and the recreational benefits were estimated using the Poisson and Negative Binomial (NB) models. The net benefits of recreation per visitor were evaluated at MYR 6.2 per trip while the price elasticity of demand was highly inelastic at −0.48. The result provides support for the imposition of an entrance fee and the subsequent revenue collection may be used for park upkeep and conservation.

Too Old for Recreation? How Friendly Are Urban Parks for Elderly People?

“…Urban parks are important elements of city infrastructure, providing numerous and diverse functions and benefits. A not exhaustive list includes positive impacts on health and wellbeing, through recreation, leisure, and sport activities [1]; community development, sense of place, identity, and social cohesion, through cultural activities and providing space and occasion for social interaction and mutual understanding [2]; education, as people can discover plants, animals and natural phenomena or use parks as outdoor classrooms [3]; the economy, as the presence of parks generates investment opportunities, attracts customers, including tourists [4], and increases the price of properties in the vicinity [5,6]; ecosystem functioning, through a range of ecosystem services, from biodiversity conservation to resource production [7], improving air quality (absorbing pollutants, regulating humidity) [8], carbon sequestration, water management (storm water absorption, and run off regulation), and mitigating urban heat islands [9].…”

Spatial and Non-Spatial Factors Influencing Willingness to Pay (WTP) for Urban Green Spaces (UGS): A Review

“…Although previous studies show varying terminologies for UGS as shown in Table 1, such as urban park (Kim, 2018;Song et al, 2013), urban green area (Forleo et al, 2015) urban nature (Paul & Nagendra, 2017), urban open spaces (Cook et al, 2018), urban public spaces (Ardeshiri et al, 2018), waterfront open spaces (Dahal et al, 2018), and urban lake recreational area (Othman & Jafari, 2019), the settings, however, deliver similar descriptions of UGS functions as recreational and retreat areas, ecosystem services providers, and a social place. From this review, generally, there are three key factors (variables/attributes): proximity, quality, and quantity of urban green spaces (UGS).…”

“…The attractiveness of UGS also corresponds to users' need, expectation, and preference; with bigger and more attractive spaces, they justify users' reasons for visiting and encourage them to have a longer duration of staying and spending time (Biernacka & Kronenberg, 2018). However, interestingly, the larger size of UGS appearing to attract more people to come because of its multipurpose function may somehow cause users' dissatisfaction due to negative externalities, i.e., overcrowding (Othman & Jafari, 2019) and noise issues produced by human activities (Nath et al, 2018). According to Zhang et al, (2015), the size of green spaces should be considered along with the distance to reach it, as smaller green spaces will become one of the reasons for seldom use and visiting.…”

“…However, users are still willing to reconsider their not-to-pay decision if the relevant authority takes necessary steps to improve UGS conditions. Moreover, previous studies also argued that UGS services should not be paid by the public (users/residents) because they believed such public goods should be entirely held responsible, and financially supported, by the government (Othman & Jafari, 2019), and some other reasons that affect users' decision and their WTP, include their concern as to whether the money paid will be embezzled (Forleo et al, 2015). Also, due to specific reasons, there are issues where some individuals are still required to contribute, although they may not be using or enjoying any green spaces.…”

Examining the Economic Value of Tourism and Visitor Preferences: A Portrait of Sustainability Ecotourism in the Tangkahan Protection Area, Gunung Leuser National Park, North Sumatra, Indonesia

“…A zoned travel cost approach can be used to estimate the economic value of ecotourism [18][19][20]. The use of the travel cost method for the valuation of tourism objects is also used by [21] in Bozcaada (Turkey), [22] in Valencia (Spain), and [23] in Taman Tasik Cempaka (Malaysia). The stages in calculating the economic value of ecotourism [24][25][26][27][28] are as follows: To determine the socioeconomic factors that influence the intensity of travel visits, multiple linear analysis is used.…”