Willingness to pay in Taman Negara: a contingent valuation method

The main attractions of national parks include its scenic beauty, rainforest and wildlife. An appropriate pricing policy in national parks can be used as a tool to not only achieve successful and sustainable management of national parks, but also provide quality products and services at fair prices to visitors. The central question is how to establish an appropriate pricing policy for national parks? Park resources such as scenic beauty and conservation of endangered species are not traded in the market place like many other commodities so they require the use of non-market valuation techniques. One of the methods commonly used for non-market valuation is the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). With Willingness to Pay (WTP) as the elicitation method, CVM was used to determine the appropriate pricing policy for the sustainable management of Taman Negara National Park (TNNP). Respondents were asked the maximum amount they were willing to pay for the nonmarket goods available at TNNP. This provided an estimate of the mean values for setting the price for licenses and permits. In addition to estimating the mean values, the study also identifies socio-demography, visit and paying characteristics of visitors. The study employs 180 visitors to TNNP, who participated in closed-ended questionnaires through interviews. Findings of the study reveal that visitors were willing to pay more for entrance fees. This study presents implications to policy makers to guide future management of TNNP. Results of this study facilitate in establishing an efficient and realistic pricing policy for TNNP

Pricing Of Protected Areas.

Abstract is not availabl

Willingness Tto Pay for Turtle Conservation and the Financial Viability of Rantau Abang Turtle Sanctuary, Terengganu

Conservation is an important measure to ensure that the endangered turtles will be able to survive for the benefit of future generations. Cardinal approach i.e. Contingent Valuation Method was used in this study to evaluate the willingness to pay for conservation of turtles in Rantau Abang, Terengganu. The study also estimated the benefits of turtle conservation, evaluated the viability of the existing Turtle Sanctuary and identified the factors that influenced society's willingness to pay for turtle conservation based on a survey of different groups of respondents. Three different groups of respondents i.e. group A (residents), group B (visitors to Rantau Abang Turtle Sanctuary) and group C (tourists) were classified in this study. Each group consists of a different number of sample sizes i.e. 110 for group A, 100 and 130 for groups B and C respectively. In the estimation of benefits for each group of respondents, the Contingent Valuation Method yielded mean values of RM10.02, RM107.11 and RM61.93 using the Logit technique. It is also found that among the factors that influenced willingness to pay for turtle conservation for groups A and B were bid, monthly income and age. For group C, bid, monthly income and membership in some environmental organisations were the main factors influencing peoples' willingness to pay. The study also evaluated the role of government contribution to the viability of the project. Using RM10 as the ticket price and with the government allocation of RM150,000, the financial analysis showed that the Net Present Value (NPV) was RM1,27,603.45. However, without government allocation, the NPV was negative RM6,229.77. This infers that the government contribution is essential to ensure the viability of the project. In fact, with the current contribution of RM150,000, the ticket price could be reduced to RM5 and the project would still be viable. At this ticket price, the NPV was RM263,649.15. A sensitivity analysis showed that the project was still viable even with a 10% decrease in total cash inflow or with a 10% increase in total cash outflow. Further analysis was carried out to determine the amount of government allocation needed for the project to reach break-even point only. At the ticket price of RM10, the amount of government allocation that made the NPV equaled zero was RM700.59 per year. At the price of RM5, the amou nt of government allocation was RM120,350.59 per year

The impact of empowerment on emotional labour: a conceptual framework

This conceptual paper investigated the importance of employee empowerment and its impact on emotional labour in securing success of service delivery. This study advocates that empowerment is essential and also a key factor in the development of service quality and customer satisfaction. It is predicted that employees who are empowered and display suitable positive emotions at work may be able to manage their emotional labour efficiently. Therefore, the major goal of this paper was to develop and propose a conceptual framework on the impact of empowerment and positive emotions on emotional labour. It aimed to help marketers and managements to have a better understanding of empowering front-line employees in the organisation. Accordingly, this study conceptualised the relationships between empowerment, positive emotions, and negative emotions with deep acting, surface acting and expressions of naturally felt emotions. The model was developed based on the extent literature in services marketing, organisational behaviour and services management literature. Meanwhile, structural equation modelling was proposed to analyse the relationships among the predicted antecedents with their outcomes. The paper foresees contribution in services marketing literature as well as hotel management literature on the importance of empowering employee and its impact on emotional labou

ARE THERE DIFFERENCES IN WILLINGNESS TO PAY AMONG VISITORS AND NON-VISITORS OF TAMAN NEGARA NATIONAL PARK?

Approaches such as the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) have helped to assign dollar values to non-use values for non-market goods which, unlike other products, are not traded in the market. This study attempts to put a value on the above non-market values. This study used the CVM, with Willingness to Pay (WTP) as the elicitation method to measure the non-use value among visitors and non-visitors of Taman Negara National Park (TNNP). This study also will answer questions; are there any differences in the WTP of various market segments, based on nationality, gender, age, education and income among visitors and non-visitors? This study found that there was a different between visitors and non-visitors willingness to pay. It also found that visitors and non-visitors market segments such as nationality,, income etc. are differed. Thus, information found in this study can be a fundamental source for park management in directing park pricing policy towards an efficient system. Although using WTP for this economic valuation cannot provide exact answers on the valuation of these natural resources, it can still provide a guideline on pricing strategy and give extra information for park management decisions, especially about park pricing. Thus, better decision-making processes can be practised if monetary values can be placed on these non-market goods

Willingness to pay for domestic water service improvements in Selangor, Malaysia : a choice modeling approach

The tasks and responsibilities of domestic water service management in Malaysia are handled by various government agencies. Sufficient water service and resources management is required for sustainable water resources conservation. In order to realized water resource conservation, economic effectiveness of water utilization (consumers), maintenance of water quality supply (source of water supply) and efficiency in allocating water resources (agencies) needs to be addressed. The objective of the study is to assess community preferences and values relating to alternative water service management with particular concentration on water service improvement. This study has applied Choice Experiment (CE) to investigate the current policies and potential alternative of water service management in Selangor. The studies are based on 230 respondents in Subang Jaya that were randomly interviewed for data collection in October to December 2008. The findings indicates that respondents are willing to pay higher for drinking water as compared to the current rate with improved in water quality (WQ), reduced the frequency of water interruption (WI) and increases in the consumer trust to tap water (CT). The finding of this study is very important in order to assists and recommends the policy makers towards efficiency of domestic water service management in Malaysia

Tourist perception and opinion towards ecotourism development and management in Redang Island Marine Parks, Malaysia

Ecotourism establishment are the merging the environmental conservation and development. The environmental conservation approach is by recognizing the right and influence of people in biological valuable areas, more attention to human and biological preferences. The development approach was link with the environment to generate economic profitability in term of businesses and employment opportunities. This study analyzed the tourist perceptions and opinions towards ecotourism management and development in one of the famous island in Malaysia. The research addresses concentrating on four sections; analyses of tourists profiles and their characteristic of visit; tourists perceptions and opinions on ecotourism resource management; ecotourism resource maintenance; and tourists opinion on implementing of revenue collection. The personal interview has been made with a total of 298 representative respondents available were used in statistical analyses. The results found that tourists have different preferences against their profiles in term of ecotourism resource management and maintenance as well as on revenue implementation. The results provide useful implications on ecotourism resources management in marine park. It is possibly assists park management for their future improvement in managing ecotourism resources and developed integrated management plan of ecotourism development

Hotels involvement in sustainable tourism practices in Klang Valley, Malaysia

The hotel sector has been described as an industry of which activities constitute a great impact on the environment. Hotels consume vast amount of energy, water and non-durable goods, and has been reported to discharge huge amount of raw and solid waste in different quantities. Serious impacts on the environment were highlighted, calling for greater hotel’s participation in sustainable tourism practices by committing to environmental management system (EMS). Comprehensive studies among hotels in Malaysia on their contributing efforts in curbing environmental degradation have been inadequate. Hence, a current study was conducted and this paper presents findings on sustainable tourism practices most commonly adopted by Malaysian hotels within Klang Valley. The main findings indicate the use of occupancy sensor/key card control system as energy saving measures, as well as the use of energy-efficient equipments and products. This result, therefore, confirms a number of preliminary studies which indicates widespread adoption of energy management among hotels. Adopting these practices has enabled Malaysian hotels to benefit from improved image to the guests and the local communities as well as the enhancement of a safe and healthy environment for hotel guests and employees

Memorable ecotourism experiences in Taman Negara, Pahang

Memorable Ecotourism Experiences (MEEs) playa key role in obtaining tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty in sustaining the ecotourism destination. Although, MTEs has been recognised as a crucial area of tourism studies since 2010, but still there is a lack of study that explore all dimensions or constructs of MTEs. Most of the recent studies only tested eight significant constructs and ignored the remaining constructs. Therefore, this study aim to examine the dimensions that influences the memorable ecotourism experiences in Taman Negara, Pahang Malaysia. Subsequently, to propose a MEEs model. In order to fill the literature gap, a pilot test was conducted in April 2018 with a sample of 40 tourists to Taman Negara, Pahang, Malaysia. These preliminary results indicated that 15 out of 22 constructs (hedonism, knowledge, meaningfulness, local culture, novelty-familiarity, involvement, refreshing, destination attributes, service, participation, freeing, adverse feeling, socialization, nature and education awareness) were significantly influencing the MEEs in Taman Negara. The study recommends further studies to be conducted to explore all 22 proposed constructs in a variety of ecotourism sector

Challenges faced by micro, small, and medium lodgings in Kelantan, Malaysia

The primary objective of this study is to identify the unique business characteristics of micro, small and medium (MSM) enterprises as well as to address issues and challenges faced by these enterprises in the hospitality and tourism business. This exploratory study employed semistructure face-to-face indepth interview methods for data collection. A total of 11 enterprises in Kelantan, Malaysia participated in the study. Nvivo was employed as a tool to analyse the data. The findings imply that MSM enterprises suffer from several obstacles such as financial constraint, high taxes, lack of state government support, the successor replacement and others. The study provides discussions on how hospitality and tourism enterprises can address the challenges faced by their business