Valuation of Recreational Benefits of Natural Tourism Sites : A Case Study of the Decline in Quality of Tourism Si

Abstract

This research aims to determine factors that affect the visitors’ decision to travel to the natural tourism sites in Mae Wang District, Chiang Mai Province and to evaluate the change of recreational benefit value of the natural tourism sites in Mae Wang District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand based on scenario of the decline in quality of tourism sites. In this study, we collected information from 400 Thai visitors who were single purpose visitors by using questionnaires and analyzed the collected information with the Individual Travel Cost Method (ITCM). Our study indicated that average incomes, attitude, experience, travel cost to tourism sites in Mae Wang District, and travel cost to alternative tourism sites are significant factors that influence the visitors’ decision to visit tourism sites in Mae Wang District. We also found that in the scenarios of the decline in quality of tourism sites, recreational demand of visitors is expected to decrease corresponding with 31.37% decrease in consumer surplus per visit. Recreational values of tourism sites are also expected to decrease by 69.05% from the estimated value of 181,194,840 THB in the year 2015. In conclusion, the results of this study provide necessary information for relevant organizations to impose measures to develop tourism sites and protect them against the decline in quality. The measures must include tourism resource consumption control and visitor facility management in order to achieve maximum satisfaction from visitors and create positive attitude of visitors that destination they visit are worth visiting.