An Empirical Study Of The Willingness To Pay For Nairobi National Park Services.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the factors that influence the willingness to pay for park services with a view to suggesting appropriate pricing policies for National Parks and Reserves.· Econometric methods are applied to data from 333 Nairobi National Park users. The data were obtained through fieldwork undertaken in January and February 1983 in Nairobi National Park. The study has shown that the factors that may help explain people's willingness to pay for the services of Nairobi National Park fall into two main categories:- (a) The sncio-economic characteristics of the pal'k users,for example their level of formal education, their incomes, age, the time and money cost of visiting the park among other things. (b) The attributes of the park itself,for example the park roads, game viewing points, guides, security of the park user and other amenities provided by the park. An interesting result of this study is that human congpstion in the park has a significant negative impact on the park usersl willingness to pay for the park services, thus, although a differentiated pricing policy is recommended in order to increase the number of visits to the parks by Kenyan nationals, this policy should be pursued with care. Additional results of the study indicate tflat the current gate charges should be raised to reflect the users' willingness the prices of seasonal tickets should be increased.