Determination of the recreational value of botanic gardens. A case study Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London

In this study the recreational use value of the Royal Botanic Garden (RBG) at Kew is determined through The Individual Travel Cost Model (TCM). For the valuation, a survey was applied to 460 randomly chosen visitors in the RBG and the results were evaluated using Linear Regression with SSPS. The number of visits was taken as the dependent variable (DV) in the model. Travel costs, entrance fee, distance from botanic garden to settlement, age and expenditures made during the visit in the botanic garden were evaluated as independent variables (IV). The negative ß value of the variable of the distance to the settlement indicates that there is an inverse relationship between the distance to settlement and the number of visits in a year. Within the scope of the TCM in consequence of the analysis performed, individual consumer surplus was determined as £165/ person and total consumer surplus were determined as £268,950,000/year. This value corresponds to an annual recreational use value of the RBG. In addition, while 91% of the people who visited the RBG for the first time found botanic garden entertaining, 96% of those expressed that they were pleased with the visit. Activities such as exhibitions, picnics, meeting with friends, natural beauty and the pristine landscape offered to visitors all played a role in increasing the degree of satisfaction