Economic Assessment of Tourism Quality Improvement Programs for the Taroko National Park

Abstract

National parks provide important functions of conserving natural and cultural resources, environmental education, leisure and recreation. In this study, the contingent behavior approach was adopted to evaluate the economic benefits based on tourists’ recreational needs through an extensive literature review relevant to improvements in recreational and environmental quality. Four quality improvement programs, including ＂Improving Infrastructure,＂ ＂Enhancing Service Quality,＂ ＂Advancing the Profession Interpretation,＂ and ＂Strengthening Environmental Management,＂ were proposed for estimating the economic benefits. The results of this study were as follows. First, the structural changes in recreation demand were generated from the tourists’ quality improvement programs in the national park. Second, with the quality improvement programs, the price elasticity of recreational demand of visiting the national park was relatively low. Third, all four quality improvement programs could significantly increase the economic benefits of visiting the national park. Especially, the increments of ＂Enhancing Service Quality,＂ ＂Advancing the Profession of Interpretation,＂ and ＂Strengthening Environmental Management＂ were significantly higher than that of ＂Improving Infrastructure,＂ which indicating that there is an improvement space. Furthermore, the administration of the Taroko National Park and the Hualien County Government should attach great importance to promote the preceding programs to enhance the quality of tourism, and response to sustainable development of the national park.