A more efficient valuation of beaches using tourists’ perspectives and Geographic Information System (GIS): The case of Patenga of Chittagong, Bangladesh

The valuation of non–marketed goods and services of beaches in developing nations is rarely conducted; thus, lax management efforts at these resource–rich places often lead to degradation. In an attempt to resolve this issue the research used the travel cost valuation method and incorporated the use of geographic information system to estimate a never-before-done non-market valuation of the area visited by respondents at the beach of Patenga of Chittagong, Bangladesh. The uniqueness of the research stems from defining the area enjoyed by the survey respondents, via mapping, which helped assign the value generated to that particular part of Patenga and not the rest; this significantly decreased the underestimation problem of the travel cost methodology. The research used secondary sources and collected responses and geographical data from surveys conducted over a seven day period in March of 2018, from 277 respondents. A value of at least 14,331,044BDT/USD1.71million was estimated for 2018 for only 9% of Patenga. Furthermore, the Willingness to Pay approach was used to propose an entry fee of 15BDT/USD0.18 which would yield a revenue of more than 6,750,000BDT/USD79,882 around the year. The authors believe, these results will push the policy-makers and encourage stakeholder participation to better implement and monitor environmental management measures at Patenga.