From the economics point of view, tourism resources along with clean air and water can be categorized as typical nonmarket commodities. Nonmarket commodities can generally be valued by either the expenditure function approach or the income compensatio...
From the economics point of view, tourism resources along with clean air and water can be categorized as typical nonmarket commodities. Nonmarket commodities can generally be valued by either the expenditure function approach or the income compensation approach. Tourism resources are an important resources for the human being who want to take a rest and recreate. However, most tourism resources are not priced in the market place. Accordingly the valuation of tourism resources due to consistently and rapidly increasing interest should be evaluated properly in order to establish management policy for and efficient resource allocation.
The overall objective of this study was to estimate the economic valuation of tourism resources for Pyonsanbando National Park using the travel cost method(TCM) in order to practical use in developing and preserving its tourism resources. TCM is nonmarket valuation techniques which is commonly used to estimate benefits received by participants in travel. Generally, there are two approaches in TCM, the zonal travel method and individual travel cost method. In zonal TCM, the travellers residing at similar distances(In this studies, the zones are divided by 20㎞) from a travel destination are aggregated into zones. With information of each zone's population, the visit rate of each zone is calculated. In individual TCM, the quantity variable is defined as the number of travel a year by individual. Regressing this quantity variable on individual travel cost, travel time, and other demand shifters gives more precise estimates of parameters than the zonal travel cost approach.
Recently, a series of paper have attempted to accommodate the diversity of visitors in travel cost methods by separating monetary outlays for travel into two categories: onsite costs and long distance travel costs. In this studies, the travel cost is calculated by two ways. That is, C1 is long distance travel cost plus onsite costs and C2 is long distance travel cost only. The independent variables applying to this study are C2, age, the length of education and household income. The zonal and individual TCM considered the opportunity cost of travel time and traffic costs as the travel costs. The opportunity cost of travel time in this studies was about 30% of average payment of all industries and applied C2 to a travel cost.
This paper estimates the value of tourism resources of Pyonsanbando National Park. A travel cost method(TCM) is used to estimated the economic benefits, measured by consumer surplus, to the users of Pyonsanbando National Park. Based on the data gathered from the Pyonsanbando National Park, the value of tourism resources for Pyonsanbando National Park is estimated ranging from 163,635 won to 433,198 won per person a year in zonal TCM, depending on the demand functions, that is, linear demand function, long-long demand function, semilog demand function. In individual TCM, its value is estimated ranging from 298,500 won to 468,594 won per person a year depending on the demand functions.
The results showed that benefit estimated from two approaches were considerably different. Although benefit estimation from the individual TCM was much higher than the zonal TCM, these values are not statistically different using conventional significant levels. Irrespective of functional forms, the price elasticity of tourists' demand on Pyonsanbando National Park was estimated to be -0.55 to -0.72 which is inelastic, suggesting that 1% increase in the travel costs will reduce 0.56~0.72% in the number of travels.
The estimation of tourism resources value of Pyonsanbando National Park that should come to main interests for rationality and efficiency of tourism planning on the Pyonsanbando National Park. On the basis of this study may suggest many issues to establish tourism policy for a way of development and preservation of Pyonsanbando and to maximize an individual and public welfare.