Willingness to Pay Analysis for Recreation and Conservation of Nature

Abstract

Natural beauties derives its value through the attraction of tourists who spends a lot for visiting them as well as contribute towards their conservation and in the process generate income and employment. Here, an attempt is made to estimate the trip generating function on the basis of various social, economic and locational factors of the tourists to the wettest place on the earth, Cherrapunjee of Meghalaya. In this paper, both the revealed and stated willingness to pay are used to identify the visitors’ average actual payment for the recreation benefit enjoyed by visiting the site and for the conservation of the scenic beauty in order to sustain and enhance the possible future benefits of the site. The first on is examined through the Travel Cost Method (TCM) and people’s willingness to pay for the preservation and improvement of the area is examined by the Contingent Valuation Technique (CVM). Distance travelled and travel cost incurred by the visitors is found to have significantly adverse impacts on the visit demand while income and education as usual have significantly positive impacts on it. The estimated recreation benefits measured by consumer surplus in both cases show significant WTP of the visitors for the natural scenic resources as well as for the preservation and improvement of the site.