Economic Valuation of the Environment and the Travel Cost Approach: The Case of Ayubia Natioanl Park

Environmental and natural resource systems such as lakes,rivers, streams, estuaries, forests, and parks provide goods in terms ofresources (e.g., flora, fauna, and minerals) and services (e.g., wastesink assimilation), a source of amenity services, use for recreationalpurposes, and life-support functions. Knowledge of the values of theseservices may be important for a variety of reasons. Access to suchresources for recreation is typically not allocated through markets.Rather, access is typically open to all visitors at a zero price or anominal entrance fee that bears no relationship to the cost of providingaccess. And there is no or little variation in these access prices overtime or across sites to provide data for econometric estimation ofdemand functions [Freeman (1993); Nillesen (2002)]. Ever since thesecond half of the twentieth century, concern about current and futureuse of our natural resources and environment has emerged at anincreasing rate. This growing concern is accompanied by an increasinginterest in so-called nature-based ecotourism. Presently, both benefitsand threats have been observed resulting from the growing importance ofecotourism in environmentally sensitive areas [Nillesen (2002)].Ecotourism plays an important role in increasing natural resourceconservation and economic growth. It may also lead to management andpolicy challenges.