Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Valuation of the recreational benefits of Old Oyo National Park, Nigeria: A travel cost method analysis

Author(s):

Luke O. Okojie ^*, Olusola S. Orisajimi,

Recieved Date: 2010-10-18, Accepted Date: 2011-01-03

Abstract:

This paper deals with the valuation of the recreational benefits of a national park that provides enormous and invaluable recreational benefits to the society through ecotourism. The threat to its existence, however, persists through deforestation, lack of environmental awareness on one part by the government that results in the starvation of funds for their maintenance and development and the populace on the other. The socio-economic characteristics of the tourists and the welfare benefits derived by them were assessed. In addition was the quantification of the recreational use value of the park. Purposive sampling technique was applied to select a sample size of 50 tourists, and the data used were primary and secondary. An onsite individual observation travel cost model and count data distributions were used to estimate a measure for the present recreation use of the site. The empirical estimates of the average representative visitor’s present equivalent surplus willingness to pay based on the impact assumption of closure or loss of the access to the park were ₦22.00 per day per visit and ₦26,400.00 for same for all sampled visitors. This translates to ₦63,360,000.00 for all 1200 tourists at mean length of stay of two days per visit for one calendar year. The welfare measure reflected by the Marshalian consumer surplus was ₦24.30 per day of stay in the park. These values suggest that recreational use of national parks has a higher value than certain economic activities in the area and government needs to budget resources for their maintenance and development.

Keywords:

Recreational use value, travel cost method, welfare measure, count data models, ecotourism, Marshalian consumer surplus, willingness to pay

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2011
Volume: 9
Issue: 1
Category: Environment
Pages: 521-525

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