Economic Valuation of Recreation Use Value of Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania

Tanzanian authorities managing environmental resources/service have made an effort to set the fees to access their resources but still there is scanty information on the pricing strategy that consider both the value of the resource and the consumer perception on quality of services which results to the management failure to predict the future impact of price/fees changes to the number of tourists visitors’ per year, visitation rate and the total recreation value of their resources. This study focused on using Travel Cost Method to value recreation in KINAPA. Data were collected using questionnaire survey, key informants interviews and secondary materials. The questionnaire used for survey was designed to capture socio - demographic variables about visitors, travel cost component variable and data on visitors perception on the quality of services provided during a visit to KINAPA. With the sample size of 384, the count data that were generated from survey was modeled with Poisson model. Based on this econometric results Consumer Surplus per day of stay in the park was 925 182 TZS (USD 571.10), the mean visitor Willingness to Pay was per one day of a visit is 837 280.80 TZS (USD 516.84), the total recreation value of the park was estimated to be 314 165 955 200 TZS (USD 193 929 602) per one calendar year and the revenue maximizing entry fee for the park was estimated to be 90 396 TZS (USD 55.8). Moreover the finding indicates that variables such as travel costs, available recreation income, age, employment status and the quality perception were significant and have an influence on the number of days a visitor stay in the park. More economic valuation research on recreation use value is recommended to other National Parks since clear understanding of the value of existing natural resource trigger the proper management and allocation of resource.