The Willingness to Pay for Beach Recreational Facilities in Malaysia
Wan Norhidayah W Mohamad
· Faten Nabila Abdul Fatah
· Zaiton Samdin
· Bakti Hasan-Basri
·International Journal of Economics and Management ·2022 ·JEL: Q51, Q57
The tourism sector plays an important part in Malaysia's economy. It includes beach and recreational tourism. However, most recreational beaches in Malaysia do not impose an entrance fee on visitors. Depending on government funding to maintain recreational beach facilities is not the best option for the future. Therefore, funding directly from visitors is needed to help cater for beach maintenance costs. Based on this, it is crucial to understand how much visitors are willing to pay for the recreational use of beaches, as any money collected could be used to help to improve facilities and services at beach areas. This study investigated visitors' willingness to pay for recreational beach facilities and has provided policy recommendations for better management of tourist facilities and services in the future. Teluk Kemang beach in Port Dickson was chosen as the case study location. This study applied the Choice Experiments (CE) method, and the model used was the Conditional Logit (CL) model. This research used four attributes: amenities, recreational facilities, cleanliness, and entrance fee. The CL results revealed that visitors were willing to pay for good amenities and cleanliness, with values of RM2.07 and RM2.43, respectively. Therefore, it was discovered that it was practical to charge an entrance fee to cover improved maintenance of beach facilities
Dealing with Attributes Non-Attendance in a Discrete Choice Experiment on Valuation of Tourist Facilities Attribute in Kenyir Lake, Malaysia
WAN NORHIDAYAH W. MOHAMAD
· KEN WILLIS
· NEIL POWE
·International Journal of Economics and Management ·2018 ·JEL: Q51; Q57
Accounting for ignored attributes, or attribute non-attendance (ANA), in discrete choice experiment (DCE) is believed to produce more reliable willingness to pay (WTP) estimates. However, there is evidence that respondents who claimed to have ignored some attributes may simply have assigned them lesser importance. To explore this issue in the context of tourism research, a new follow-up question is used to investigate whether the respondents have ignored certain attributes or just assigned the attribute as of lesser importance when responding. Three different mixed logit (MXL) models were estimated and compared. Results generally indicate that some respondents do indeed ignore certain attributes, and some of them put less emphasis on certain attributes when making decisions. Comparison of the different MXL models reveals different WTP estimates, suggesting the importance of considering an appropriate method to deal with ANA.
A Discrete Choice Experiment in Estimate Public Willingness to Pay for Attributes of Water Services in Terengganu, Malaysia
Nur Syuhada Che Ibrahim
· Mahirah Kamaludin
· Nur Fatihah Shaari
·Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia ·2019
Water service is usually taken for granted as important amenities with required levels needed, however little is known about how much consumers are willing to pay for particular water service levels. Improved water services should be based on the understanding built upon consumers’ choice and preferences. Thus, this study aims to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) of consumers in Terengganu, Malaysia for improvement in domestic water services. A choice experiment method was conducted to assess consumer preferences for water service attributes: i.e. water quality, water disruption, water pressure and water price. Primary data were collected using face-to-face interviews of structured questionnaire from a sample of residents in eight districts in Terengganu. A conditional logit model was carried out for data regression. The results showed signifcant willingness to pay (WTP) and the contribution of the level of education, age and income in supporting the specifc attributes of water services improvements. Identifying the attributes and their prices based on consumers’ preferences would help water provider to recognize and deliver preferred water service attributes, effective water tariff policy for cost recovery and water service sustainability to consumers.