Resources Science, Volume. 42, Issue 2, 232(2020)
The construction of national parks is an important part of building an ecological civilization. Ticket pricing is a hot topic in the pilot and construction of the national park system. We chose the Jiaozhou Bay National Marine Park, located in Shandong Province, China, as the research area, and used double-bounded dichotomous contingent valuation method (CVM) to obtain tourists’ willingness to pay for visiting the park. By drawing on the existing research, we also constructed a willingness to pay function model and a ticket revenue function model to examine the influencing factors of tourists’ willingness to pay and the optimal ticket price. Results from estimations of the models show that the maximum willingness to pay for tourists to visit the Jiaozhou Bay National Marine Park is CNY 129.30 yuan/a. Considering the public welfare and ecological restoration purposes of the National Park, the optimal ticket price for the Jiaozhou Bay National Marine Park at this stage is CNY 108.00 yuan/a. At this price, the total revenue of park annual tickets will reach the maximum. The age of tourists has a significant negative impact on their willingness to pay. Visitors’ local household registration, education level, annual income, and awareness of environmental responsibility have a significant positive impact on their willingness to pay. In deciding differential pricing of tickets, the socioeconomic characteristics identified above and their impact on willingness to pay should be fully considered. The conclusion can provide a reference for the ticket pricing of the Jiaozhou Bay National Marine Park as well as for other natural or national parks to make differentiated ticket pricing.
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Jingmei LI, Zhongxian DING, Wanting XU, Zhihua XU, Jingzhu SHAN.
Received: Jun. 16, 2019
Accepted: --
Published Online: Sep. 17, 2020
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