Evaluating the Recreation Value of Alishan National Forest Recreation Area in Taiwan

Abstract

This study aimed to construct an effective model to estimate the recreation value and total annual recreation benefits of the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area (ANFR) through the travel cost method. Negative binomial regression was also employed to estimate the demand function. This study sorted participants based on gender, age, level of education, personal monthly income, occupation, and place of residence to examine their differences in perceived recreation value and recreation demand. The survey responses revealed that most tourists were mainly middle aged, and took family vacations. The findings indicate that the recreation benefits of traveling to Alishan per person each year equaled NTD 1703. Furthermore, the annual recreation benefits of Alishan were approximately between NTD 2,157,121,944 and NTD 2,452,136,112 based on a total of 1,353,276 visits traveling to Alishan in 2019. Recommendations and suggestions are drawn for ANFR based the results.