Translating Tourists’ Satisfaction Data into Economic Value of the National Forest Parks in China

ABSTRACT Conventional nonmarket valuation methods have several shortcomings and limitations. This study presents a novel method of the tourist satisfaction approach (TSA) and employs it to value the attributes of national forest parks (NFP) in China. A tourist satisfaction model was established to depict the underlying relationship of tourists’ satisfaction with park attributes, tourists’ demographic traits, and their travel costs. Data on tourist satisfaction and park attributes were collected from 30 Chinese NFPs. The results reveal that TSA can be a powerful tool for valuing NFP resources and their related management activities. The empirical results show that the quality of NFP attributes directly affects tourist satisfaction, which can lead to a significant amount of economic value. For example, on average, a visitor is willing to pay ¥323.18 ($47.86) to reduce park congestion, and ¥118.22 ($17.51) lessen the number of observable litter on the park sites.