Abstrakt
Non-timber functions of forest, such as recreational and aesthetical services, are not traded on ordinary markets, their monetary values are not known directly. Stated and revealed preference techniques are some of the economic methods that can be used when placing a monetary value on non-traded goods.
When using a revealed preference technique, e.g. travel cost method (TCM), we rely on observed behavior of individuals. Contrary to TCM, stated preference techniques rely on stated behavior of individuals in response to hypothetical situations.
In this study, the single site TCM is applied to infer recreational values values placed by visitors on Jizerské hory Mountains (JH), one of the oldest landscape protected areas in the Czech Republic. Individual data about respondent's current visit to the area, actual number of trips to the recreation site and stated behaviors expressed as the number of trips realized to the site under hypothetical conditions were obtained by administering an on-survey.
The survey targeted on visitors participating on summer recreational activities (hiking and mountain biking) and resulted in a total of 312 completed questionnaires.