Recreational Values Evaluation Of Bird-watching Based On Travel Cost Method

The quantitative evaluation research can provide basis for policy-making, price-determining and tourist management of recreational area, this application trend is obvious in the operation of many countries and international organizations. Travel Cost Method (TCM) as one of the most popular evaluation methods, is widely used.From the research and theoretical background, the paper gives a deep understanding on the basic theoretical connotation of TCM, summarizes the history and problems of the TCM application in recreational value evaluation of China. Based on the investigation of the Dongting Lake International Bird-watching Festival, this study regards making a distinction between junket-tourists and self-financed tourists as a breakthrough point, forwards a new model-NITC(cost-nature based individual travel cost method).The result of this research shows that:(1) the total recreational value of the bird-watching reaches 663.9 thousand yuan or 470 yuan per person one day, which should be reasonable. (2) NITC, which distinguishes the nature of travel cost (public-expenses or own-expenses), avoiding the overlarge outcome of consumer surplus due to the demand elasticity insufficiency of public-expenses, providing reference for the related study in China.