An Assessment of the Jiuzhaigou Landscape Recreational Value and Spatial Variation

Jiuzhaigou is a national nature reserve,tourist attraction,and a natural World Heritage site,and its managers face the challenge of effectively protecting its environmental and cultural resources while meeting the needs of recreational visitors. Contingent valuation( CVM) and travel cost( TCM) methods have been used to evaluate the total recreational value of Jiuzhaigou,but such methods cannot measure the individual recreational values of various tourism resources. This study adopted a landscape services perspective to identify and evaluate the value of such tourism resources. In addition,participatory mapping of recreational service points was used to indicate personal preferences and the perceived value of individual tourism resources across the valley. A combination of participatory mapping and CVM was used to determine tourists' evaluations of service points and willingness to pay for various recreation resources. The tourists also participated in determining the location of landscape recreation points. Based on the survey results,the value of recreational resources and their spatial variation was evaluated. A total of 730 respondents were interviewed to determine their willingness to pay( WTP) for recreational resource protection,and 614 valid responses were obtained. Approximately 73% of respondents had a positive willingness to pay for recreational services. The average value a tourist was willing to pay was 354.98 yuan,and based on this figure,the recreational value of Jiuzhaigou was estimated at 0.94 billion yuan for 2012. The mountain lakes,waterfalls,and other areas of the water landscape had the highest recreational value( 290 million yuan). The spatial distribution of highly valued recreation service points exhibited a high concentration on both sides of the developed valleys.Zharu valley received fewer visitors but had a higher recreational value than other areas. Contingent value assessment is an important technique used in non-market resource protection and utilization studies and has received increasing attention.Further research is needed to explore the reliability and validity of this method,and its applications to ecological landscape planning and the sustainable development of tourism. Research is also needed on spatial differentiation in the recreational value of tourism resources to provide the basis for specific monitoring and management of Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve.