Study On The Evaluation Of National Forest Park Recreational Value

National Forest Park,which combines sightseeing,leisure and health,has become a new hot spot for residents travel in recent years.While the tourism demand is increasing rapidly,some problems regarding over-utilization of resources and inadequate management have occurred frequently.The level of tourist satisfaction and the carrying capacity of parks are facing serious challenges.Actually,a lack of information on the recreational value,which plays an important role in resource allocation,is the main reason for the challenge of sustainable development.Therefore,how to use a scientific evaluation model to measure the monetization value of park recreational attributes has become a critical problem.Even though hundreds of studies have been conducted in the field of traditional recreational value assessment techniques,a series of concerns still remain regarding the acceptability of economic valuation results as well as their reliability in practical uses.Sometimes previous non-market valuation studies have ignored the role that tourists’ psychological factors could potentially play in valuing park resources.On the other hand,the introduction of individual subjective welfare or satisfaction levels has not been introduced to the field of tourism resources value.Therefore,this study focuses on three aspects including "innovation of evaluation method","correction of traditional methods" and "application of evaluation results" in order to have an in-depth exploration on the theory and methods of the evaluation of the National Forest Park recreational value.In this process,the proposed market mechanisms such as the exploration of tourists’ real preference and the correct pricing of recreational attributes can not only effectively alleviate the contradiction between ecological protection and of forest tourism development effectively,but also provide an important insights to make an upgraded "tourist-oriented" park strategy.Focusing on the above three points closely,the main research contents and conclusions are summarized as follows:(1)The definition of National Forest Park recreational value and the identification of recreational attributes.First of all,combining with the value theory in welfare economics and the typical characteristics of forest eco-tourism scenic spots,the connotation and measurement methods of park recreational value are clearly defined.Subsequently,we have identified six main attributes through literature review and online review material analysis.The attributes includes "Vegetation coverage rate","Quantity of garbage","Convenience of transportation","Support facility","Recreation facility" and "Crowding levels".They laid the foundation for the further evaluation of recreational value.(2)The model design and empirical study of valuing recreational attributes based on the tourist satisfaction approach(TSA).This chapter validates the possibility of using tourist satisfaction to price the“intangible assets" of recreational resources.Firstly,through the analysis of utility maximization theory and indifference curve,the theoretical framework and model form of TSA are constructed.Subsequently,using the survey data of 22 parks across the country to conduct an empirical analysis.The results show that "Vegetation coverage rate","Quantity of garbage","Support facility" and "Recreation facility" improve tourist satisfaction significantly.Conversely,the deterioration of the "Crowding level" affects the tourists’ satisfaction negatively.Tourists from different cities have significant differences in the preference of recreational attributes,which leads to significant differences in the value between these groups.The improvement of recreational attributes means higher economic value for outside tourists.Finally,we use Wuying National Forest Park as an example,the application of TSA assessment results for a single park is completed.The results show that the current total recreational value of this park is 117,762 million yuan,which is higher than the calculation results many years ago.(3)We use choice experiment method(CEM)for data collection and take the Xian Rentai National Forest Park in China as the study area to investigate how the recreational value of forest park is affected by tourists’ perception on their recreational experience such as the level of satisfaction.The results show that of all attributes being analyzed,tourists attached the greatest importance to the park "Quantity of garbage" and "Convenience of transportation".Moreover,tourists who held different levels of tourism satisfaction on the park visit exhibit divergent magnitudes of willingness to pay for the recreational attributes.Compared with the high satisfaction group,the less satisfied tourist group shows a lower willingness to pay for the entrance price,so did the consumer surplus estimated from the low satisfaction group(32.99%).This clearly indicates the fact that psychological factor indeed plays an important role in valuing recreational benefits of the national forest park.In this study,the factor of tourist satisfaction contributes about 12.83%to the total recreational value accrued to the park attributes in Xian Rentai National Forest Park.(4)Comparing the recreational value of Xian Rentai National Forest Park under the two methods including TSA and CEM techniques.The study shows that the recreational value calculated by the former(194.10 yuan per person)was slightly higher than latter one(184.95 yuan per person).The potential endogenousness of travel costs,the limitations of CEM experimental design,and information processing strategies in the TSA model maybe the reasons lead to these differences.(5)Taking the analysis of tourist travel cost-benefit as the theoretical support,the evaluation criteria of "tourism experience carrying capacity" was formulated from the perspective of the combination of recreational value and tourist experience utility in this paper.Using Xian Rentai National Forest Park as an example,the state of tourism experience of the park was evaluated.The results show that,the threshold of the carrying capacity of the park’s crowding level is between 20-35 people per 100m2,the threshold of "Vegetation coverage rate" is between 70%-80%,and the threshold of "Quantity of garbage" is 3-10 pieces per 100m;the acceptable traffic accessibility level for tourists is less than 3h.By calculating the current utility level combination of the park’s current recreational attributes and the simulated net utility level in choice experiment,the status of each recreational attribute under the three conditions of "Weak load","Fit load" and "Over load" is obtained.This research has provided a quantitative basis for monitoring the status of park carrying capacity,resource development and protection,especially the control of tourists number in the future.