Recreational Use Value of Lakes an Application of Travel Cost Method: A Case of Lake Ziway

Lake Ziway is one of the largest fresh water Rift Valley Lakes of the Ethiopia; the Lake holds the intrinsic value and aesthetic quality of a wetland, including its functions like shelter for a diversity of plants, aquatic birds and fishes and it is also home of different monastery. This beautiful nature of the lake attracts many visitors. However, despite the many sources of attractions, because the public goods nature of the lake its demand and value in terms of its recreation service to society is not known, which makes deficit to sustain and expand the recreational service of the lake. For this reason this study analyzed the recreational value of Lake and its demand using an individual travel cost method (ITCM) based on face-to-face interview with 223 randomly selected local visitors of the Lake. The truncated Poisson model was used in the empirical analysis to estimate the recreational value of the lake and to identify its determinants. The econometric result of this model shows visitor’s martial statues, family size, and mode of transportation, type of visit, distance and travel cost are significant factors that affects the visitation rate for recreational site. And the study estimates that the on-site recreational benefits per visit per person was about 3353.64 per year and the expected total annual on-site recreational benefit of the site is 118,698,734.16 birr.