Capturing Tourists’ Preferences for the Management of Community-Based Ecotourism in a Forest Park

Cheng Zong, Kun Cheng, Chun-Hung Lee and Nai-Lun Hsu
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Cheng Zong: College of Wildlife Resources, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Kun Cheng: College of Wildlife Resources, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
Chun-Hung Lee: The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien 97401, Taiwan
Nai-Lun Hsu: The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien 97401, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: The development of community ecotourism will require the integration of experience, culture, and information for management decision-making. We use a choice experiment to build a community ecotourism preference model incorporating aspects of profound experience and economics in a forest park, test the tourists’ heterogeneity by using a random parameter logit model, and estimate the values of various community ecotourism programs. The empirical results reveal that: (1) Tourists’ preferences for community ecotourism will increase with the inclusion of a mini tour, experiential activities, and the opportunities to taste local dishes and stay at a distinctive bed & breakfast (B&B); (2) The variety of tourists’ social backgrounds and recreational experiences resulted in the heterogeneity of the attributes; (3) The best combinations regarding community ecotourism were a small group size, profound or in-depth experiences, and experiential activities in a forest park. This pilot study generates useful information by demonstrating possible community ecotourism programs in the forest park, along with suggestions for a quality improvement program.

Keywords: multiple aspects in ecotourism; heterogeneity preferences; ecotourism programs; local sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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