Zaiton Samdin

Review of valuation from a non‐market perspective: travel cost method for rural tourism

Purpose – The study aims to conduct a critical analysis of available economic tools to value non‐market rural tourism products and services, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of these tools.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews existing valuation methods to better understand how estimates of rural tourism products and services are conducted. The paper also critically evaluates the applicability of these methods.Findings – The study concludes that the selection of a method is mainly based on applicability of the approach. In assessing the non‐market value of rural tourism products and services, a method is selected by identifying its strengths and weaknesses. A review of previous studies suggests the evaluation of the practicality of each method according to the topic studied.Originality/value – The paper contributes to a better understanding of available valuation approaches that give reliable estimates on non‐market rural tourism products and services.

The vulnerable context of tourism development: evidence from Sri Lanka.

A large number of countries adapted tourism as a significant tool for development, but over utilisation of resources and negative impacts were claimed planned tourism development to ensure the sustainability. Sri Lanka also embarked on the tourism industry, beginning in the 1960s with planned tourism development. This paper intends to identify and understand the broader context of tourism development and its vulnerability with reference to Sri Lanka. This study adopted an inductive descriptive analysis methodology through informal and formal interviews and participant observation, in addition to a wide documentary analysis. Many researchers and authors verify that planned tourism development determines positive outcomes and attainment of desired objectives. Until 1982, Sri Lanka had recorded highly favourable growth in tourism. Since 1983 planning deficiencies, internal crises and natural disasters have curtailed the progress of planned tourism development. Conceptually, the tourism planning process provides positive outlooks of a potential tourism industry but in a broader context, political, socio-cultural, environmental and economic stability determine tourism development in a destination.

Household’s willingness to pay for drinking water quality service improvement in Damaturu, Nigeria.

Human existence depends largely on availability of water both in high quality and sustainable supply. Improved quality drinking water has the ability to improve our standard of living, reduces mortality rates and morbidity associated with water born diseases. Damaturu have witnessed unprecedented increase and influx of population due to its new status by been made the capital of Yobe State in 1991, provision of safe drinking water thus became a matter of serious concern and this led to prevalence of water borne diseases like diarrhea and other gastro intestinal disorder. Yobe State has embarked on the construction of “Damaturu regional water supply project” which promises 100% access to portable water to Damaturu. The general objective of the study is to assess the household’s willingness to pay for an improved quality drinking water. Choice experiment approach was used, and four attributes of drinking water quality were identified namely; tap water quality (TWQ), Tap water supply (TWS) tap water pressure (TWP) and Price. Conditional logit model (CLM), involving randomized sampling of 300 respondents was carried out. The results were found that respondents with higher level of education are more willing to pay. Identifying the mix of attributes and their prices based on respondents’ drinking water quality demand preferences would help policy makers to know and provides the households with a preferred and affordable drinking water and also facilitates effective tariff structure for cost recovery and sustainability.