Valuing Recreational and Conservational Benefits of a Natural Tourist Site : Case of Cherrapunjee, the Wettest Place on the Earth

Nature based tourism has been a very important source of income and employment in Meghalaya as the state is endowed with diverse scenic natural beauty that attracts a large number of domestic and foreign tourists every year. This paper attempts to examine the impact of various social, economic and locational factors on the visiting decision of the tourists to Cherrapunjee, the wettest place on the earth. The recreation benefit enjoyed by the visitors, from the natural beauty of the site is estimated by using both the revealed and stated willingness to pay i.e., Travel Cost method (TCM) and people's willingness to pay for the preservation and improvement of the area through Contingent Valuation technique (CVM). Distance traveled and travel cost incurred by the visitors is found to have significantly negative impacts on the frequency of visit while income, education has significantly positive impact on the same. The estimated recreation benefits obtained from revealed and expressed WTP for the preservation and improvement of the site is in favour of policy induced increase of recreation charges in the site