Determination of the recreational value of the Beydağları Coastal National Park: Travel cost and contingent valuation cases

Ecosystems provide raw materials needed for the economic activity. These raw materials like timber can be priced in a free market. Besides that, ecosystems have also recreational and passive use values. Unlike the raw materials provided by ecosystems, these services can neither be directly observed nor be priced through the market mechanism. The recreational value is often referred to use value. Use value means the pleasure or utility that one derives from a visit to a specific natural area. On the other hand, passive use values are the values like carbon storage, erosion control and biodiversity. These values are often called "ecosystem services". In order to determine these use and non-use values, non-market valuation techniques are to be used. Although ecosystem valuation is a controversial issue, according to the economic theory if a commodity has no value, it has also zero price. And when a commodity has zero price, it is at risk of excessive usage. The main purpose of this study is to determine the total economic value of the Beydağları Coastal National Park. To achieve this goal, Travel Cost and Contingent Valuation, two of the non-market valuation techniques, were used. The Travel Cost Method was used to calculate the annual recreational use value and the Contingent Valuation Method was used to determine the annual non-use value. According to the results, the consumer surplus per person is 642,49 TL. When it is considered that the park has 750.000 visitors annualy and annual visit to the park per person is 2,9 total annual recreational value was calculated as 1.398.351.000 TL. The Contingent Valuation Method is used to pin down the non-use value of the park. To the results, willingness to pay per person is 84,69 TL and annual non-use value of the park is 188.228.775 TL. The annual total economic value of the park equals the sum of use and non-use values. Thus, the total economic value of the park equals 1.586.579.775 TL. Keywords: Travel Cost, Contingent Valuation, Recreational Value