The Expenditure Pattern on Ecotourism Resources in Taman Negara: The Case for International Tourists
National Parks are under increasing pressure to provide economic justification for their existence, particularly in developing countries where demand for land and natural resources is high. Ecotourism offers a mechanism to generate substantial benefits from protected areas for governments and lo...
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Format: | Thesis |
Language: | English English |
Published: |
2002
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/8303/1/FEP_2002_2_ir.pdf |
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Summary: | National Parks are under increasing pressure to provide economic
justification for their existence, particularly in developing countries
where demand for land and natural resources is high. Ecotourism offers
a mechanism to generate substantial benefits from protected areas for
governments and local communities, as well as the private investors.
Also, ecotourism is increasingly promoted as a sustainable use of such
protected areas through generation of income and revenue for the nation.
This study was aimed at (1) analyzing international tourists' expenditure
patterns in Taman Negara using model comparison for individual total
expenditure, average group expenditure and individual daily expenditure.
(2) examining the consumer preferences and tastes for nature-based
outdoor recreation activities (3) find out the international tourists'
feedback on the recreational attributes, current status of recreational facilities and services provided. (4) determining the international tourists'
socio-economic characteristics and their distribution. A total of 384
respondents were interviewed using close-ended questionnaires.
Collected data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, index analysis,
factor analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, F
statistic test and t-test.
The findings identified Europeans as having the highest percentage of
respondents whose age were between 21-30 years old. Most of the
respondents were university graduates and earn between USD 1001 to
2000 per month. Male participation is higher when compared to female
and most of the respondents led a single life. More than half of the
respondents agreed with the recreational attributes in Taman Negara.
Meanwhile, more than 600/0 of the respondents thought that little
improvement is needed for all the current services and facilities provided
except for road transportation, information and access to recreational
facilities such as jungle tracks and canopy walkway within the park
which were highly recommended for improvement.
Our result indicated that there were five recreational activities namely
canopy walkway, jungle trekking, night walk, wildlife observation and
visiting Lata Berkoh that were highly participated, preferred and popular
among the international tourists. There were various price levels that the international tourists spent for the three basic important elements
namely: accommodation , food and recreational activity during their stay
in the park. The highest price that they paid for accommodation was
between RM61 to RM80 per day per person. Respondents also revealed
their expenditure for recreational activities participated in the park.
Meanwhile, they spent less for food, which was about RM2 1 to RM40 per
day per person.
Eight independent variables were chosen to explain the tourist
expenditures. These eight independent variables consisted of income,
age, education level, region, satisfaction level for the top five recreation
activities, length of stay, marital status and travelling pattern. The
dependent variables were individual total expenditure, average group
expenditure and individual daily expenditure. Although all independent
variables showed different influences in the three different functional
forms, some similarities were observed in this study. For example,
region, income, satisfaction level for top five recreation activities and
travelling pattern were found significant but inelastic. The explanation
from the result indicate that although these variables do influenced the
dependent variables but the impact is very small in affecting the
respondents' decision making for their expenditure pattern in the park.
Meanwhile, age, education level, length of stay and marital status were
statistically insignificant. Besides that, log-linear form model was selected as the basis for further evaluation and analysis focusing on the
international tourists expenditure pattern in Taman Negara. |
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