Assessing the Recreational and Educational Value of Taipei Zoo

Taipei Zoo is one of the most important tourist destinations in Taiwan. This study uses the Travel Cost Method (TCM) to evaluate the overall recreational value and establish the tourists’ recreational demand model of Taipei Zoo. This study calculates the recreational value generated by the zoo's entertainment and educational functions, which are directly experienced by tourists, using a combination of the TCM and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Furthermore, recognizing Taipei Zoo's significant role in animal education, this study also employed Contingent Behavior (CB) to assess how tourists’ behavior changes when experiential education activities are introduced. The results indicate that the introduction of experiential education activities at the zoo next year is expected to increase the recreational value to 43.2 billion NTD, representing a 42% increase compared to the present status.