Abstract:
This study investigated the preferences for biodiversity and habitat protection
among tourists at the Kakum National Park (KNP) in Ghana using primary
data collected from a total of 472 tourists of whom 202 were foreign tourists
and 270 were Ghanaian tourists. The main objective of the study was to
estimate the total economic value for the attributes associated with the KNP
and to understand the role they play in ecotourism promotion. The choice
experiment method was employed as a valuation method to elicit the
associated marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) of these attributes. Using a
mixed logit, the only significant MWTP for the Ghanaian model was access to
information on biodiversity and cultural heritage which they were willing to
pay GHS 1.29 more on entrance fees per trip. International tourists were
willing to pay statistically significant amounts of GHS 1.37, 3.55, 82.88, 22.79
on improvements in human traffic, reducing encroachment, improving
biodiversity and accessing information via printed materials whereas they
were willing to pay GHS 5.29 and 51.08 to move away from options of higher
canopy walkway and accessing information via QR codes. The study
recommends that park management should focus on revamping biodiversity
protection efforts as well as improve information on biodiversity in the form
of printed materials to ensure that the lesser-known activities like animal
viewing, hiking and camping are well advertised both locally and
internationally to increase patronage and revenue generation.
