Optimal pricing for national park entrance fees in Zambia

• Main Author: Chikumbi, Lydia Mwelwa
• Other Authors: Muchapondwa, Edwin
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2014
• Subjects: Development
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5772

Includes abstract. === Includes bibliographical references. === This study seek to investigate whether the optimal entrance fees for Zambia’s national parks with particular focus on the four most popular parks namely South Luangwa, Mosi-oa-tunya, Lower Zambia, and Kafue are optimal. This study collects data from tourists which it then uses to estimate the parks visitation demand functions, the price and income elasticities. Using price elasticity estimates, optimal conservation fees are estimated. The study employs the contingent behaviour approach to elicit park visitors’ behaviour in response to changes in entrance fees. This is done for both actual and hypothetical scenarios. The study reveals that demand elasticities estimated at the four parks are fairly different, demonstrating the heterogeneity characterizing both tourist behavior and park attraction and amenities. The cross price elasticity that was estimated showed that substitutability in visitation demand existed in all the four parks. This entails that increasing price at one park can effectively influence tourists to move from that park to another.