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Int. J. Leisure and Tourism Marketing, Vol. 1, No. 3, 2010

Managing urban parks and gardens in developing countries: a case from an Indian city Pradeep Chaudhry* and Vindhya P. Tewari
Arid Forest Research Institute, New Pali Road, Jodhpur-342005, India Fax: 91-291-2722764 E-mail: pradeepifs@yahoo.com E-mail: vptewari@yahoo.com *Corresponding author
Abstract: The Chandigarh City of India is known for its urban parks, gardens and well planned landscaping. In a research case study undertaken during 20022006, an assessment about the annual recreational value of this citys urban greenery was made by using travel cost method on the domestic tourists. The consumer surplus per visit enjoyed by domestic tourists was estimated. Governments in developing countries are generally facing resource crunch for the maintenance of existing parks/gardens and for the creation of new ones. A mechanism of charging a proper entrance fee for the citys parks and gardens has been discussed by meaningfully utilising this consumer surplus on one hand and revenue generation for the local administration, on the other. The results of the study would be useful for green space and urban land use planning as well as for overall sustainable urban development. Keywords: Chandigarh; tourists; travel cost method; consumer surplus; entrance fee; gate fee; leisure; tourism marketing; public parks/gardens; India. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Chaudhry, P. and Tewari, V.P. (2010) Managing urban parks and gardens in developing countries: a case from an Indian city, Int. J. Leisure and Tourism Marketing, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp.248256. Biographical notes: Pradeep Chaudhry is Senior Forest Officer of the Indian Forest Service and presently working as Head of Silviculture Division of Arid Forest Research Institute, Jodhpur, India. He has worked in different forest areas/types of the country including in states/union territories of Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. His main research interests are related to forest and environment valuation, urban parks, gardens, non-timber forest products and silviculture of tropical tree species. V.P. Tewari is Senior Scientist at Arid Forest Research Institute, Jodhpur, India. He has worked at the Institute of Forest Management and Yield Sciences, University of Gottingen, Germany in the capacity of FAO Fellow and as a DAAD Fellow. His main research fields include growth and yield modelling, forest management and silvicultural aspects of tropical tree species. He has two edited books and more than 50 research papers to his credit in various reputed national and international scientific journals.

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Introduction

Chandigarh, the joint capital city of Punjab & Haryana states of India and designed by famous French architect Le Corbusier, is known for its urban greenery worldwide. Well maintained parks/gardens, including world-famous Nek Chands Rock Garden, are attracting not only city dwellers but tourists and other city planners also. A harmonious blend of buildings, trees and other landscape features, with the beautiful backdrop of Shiwalik hills, enhances its aesthetic value. The city experiences changing moods of vegetation with the varying seasons. If in winter the roses are in bloom, then in summer the flowering trees planted along the roadsides and in parks/gardens create a riot of colours. The panorama and pace of nature in the city varies from the placid to picturesque but is never still. No surprise, one of the favourite pastimes of the people in Chandigarh City is walking in the parks and gardens whereas younger generation likes these spots for recreation. With a good number of retired persons settling down in the city, a common saying is that it is a city of green hedges and grey beards (Chandigarh Tourism, 2006). Governments, in developing countries particularly, are finding difficulty in revenue/resource generation and are constrained to spend limited amount on environment related assets like creation of newer parks/gardens and maintenance of existing gardens. In this paper, a meaningful utilisation of some portion of the consumer surplus enjoyed by the tourists, in the form of enhanced gate/entrance fee for urban parks/gardens of the city, has been discussed. This can help, in turn, for better maintenance of existing parks/gardens of the city and for the creation of the new ones as well.

Why valuing non-market benefits

Estimation of non-market benefits or intangible benefits of urban forests are often ignored or grossly under estimated, with the result that these are rarely considered into public decision-making and cost-benefit analysis of the projects in developing countries (More et al., 1988). One of the obvious indicators of urban sustainable development is the quality and quantity of green spaces and elements in the city (Huang et al., 1998; Schauman and Salisburry, 1998). These areas provide numerous benefits in terms of improvements in the physical and psychological environment in the cities (Attwell, 2000; Eliasson, 2000; Gomez et al., 2001). They are essential for residents as well as for tourists as recreational areas. Valuation of unpriced goods and services is sometimes required and in fact has been used to determine compensations in lawsuits involving loss or damage to the environment. Court battles are underway in Canada and the USA in which firms or individuals are liable for damages to environmental resources (Sarker and Mckenney, 1992). Dispute over the use and management of natural and green resources are expected to increase in future. In India, the Supreme Court, recently, has been very active dealing with cases of environmental and natural resources degradation (SCI, 2002). In future, there will be a greater demand for objective measures of the value of the damage to the environment for litigation purpose.

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Travel cost method

The travel cost method (TCM) is used to estimate economic or recreational use values associated with sites that are used for recreation. The basic premise of the travel cost method is that the time and travel cost expenses that people incur to visit a site represent the price of access to the site. In this way, peoples willingness to pay to visit the site can be estimated based on the number of trips people make at different travel costs. This is analogous to estimating peoples WTP for a marketed good based on the quantity demanded at different prices. TCM is a well-tried technique, which is generally accepted and yields plausible results. The method is based on actual behavior i.e. what people actually do rather than stated willingness to pay-what people say they would do in a hypothetical situation, generally a common feature found in contingent valuation method. Based on data obtained from survey of site users, the basic equation involving visitation rate and travel cost is estimated using regression analysis. This leads to the creation of a so-called whole experience demand curve based on visitation rates. To estimate the consumer surplus accruing from the site, the whole experience demand curve is used to estimate the actual number of visitors and how the numbers would change subject to different hypothetical entrance fees at the recreational site in essence constructing a classic inverse demand curve. In the above analysis, it is assumed that an entrance fee is viewed by the visitors in the same way as travel costs to reach the site. It is also assumed that households have equal taste and preferences. The total area under this demand curve would give the total economic benefits of the site to the visitors (US Water Resource Council, 1983).

Primary data collection and target groups

For primary data collection, a questionnaire was prepared for the tourists seeking details about place of residence, the mode of transport used, cost of travel, time spent on travel and on the site, frequency of visits to the city etc. Data on socio-economic status like occupation, education and household income was also sought. Often, people in developing countries are reluctant to disclose their incomes during surveys; therefore, they were requested to tick mark on the income band they belong to like below Rs. 5,000/-, between Rs. 5,001 to 10,000/- per month, between Rs. 10,001/- to 15,000/per month, above Rs. 15,001/- per month household income etc. The principal author himself conducted all the interviews personally during the summer and winter seasons of the year 20022003. April, May and June were treated as summer months; while October, November and December were considered as winter months. Accordingly these months were selected for the survey. In this way, the peak tourist seasons of both summer and winter holidays were taken in to account. By conducting the survey himself, an effort was made to maintain a neutral stance throughout the interview, to make respondents aware of the questions properly and to minimise various kinds of biases associated with the technique. It was observed during pre-testing of the questionnaire that on an average, it took 15 to 20 minutes for an ordinary tourist (with his family) to complete the questionnaire. It was also noticed that tourists, mostly other than Government service category, were reluctant in disclosing information even on income band, mode of transport used and complete house address with signatures. To overcome this problem, it was decided that tourists would not be

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pressurised for giving complete address or affixing signatures on the format. In this way, they were fully assured that the data was being collected for research purpose only and not by income tax or any related government agency. In-person interviews were initiated by informing potential respondents that the survey was being done as a part of research work under Forest Research Institute (FRI) University, Dehradun, India. This eliminates the potential sponsor bias to a large extent, since respondents look at the university as a neutral body (Navrud and Mungatana, 1994). All the tourists, who were willing to participate in the survey, were considered. While doing this, it was taken care especially that the sample must represent the true population as far as possible, taking proper proportion of frequent visitors (mostly from neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi) and other non-frequent visitors, mostly from far off areas. All the interviews were held at prominent tourist places of the city like Rock Garden, Sukhana Lake, Rose Garden and Leisure Valley, etc. The tourists were also asked specifically to mention before filling up of questionnaire about the primary objective of their visit to the city. If the said objective was not tourism, then they were not considered for the interview. Only adult visitors, i.e., above 20 years in age and head of the family/group, who had a defined source of income, were interviewed because they are considered to be more realistic in making personal valuations of their recreational experience at the site vis--vis their budget constraint (Brown and Henry, 1989; Navrud and Mungatana, 1994). During the course of survey, a total of 1,120 groups of families were interviewed taking in to account the representative samples of frequent and non-frequent visitors. Out of this, 154 families were not considered as their prime objective of the visit to the city was not tourism, while 62 groups/families produced incomplete information, resulting in 904 complete questionnaires. Thus, the actual survey produced information on 3,113 visitors (including all family members), as single questionnaire was used to interview 904 numbers of groups/families. The travel cost method has some common biases like multi-site visit, multi-purpose visit and opportunity cost of travel and onsite time that were properly addressed at during data collection stage. Forest recreation and nature tourism serving urban societies are more developed in European and North American countries in comparison to Asian continent. Urbanisation is increasing rapidly in Asian countries and the relationship of urban forestry with tourism in Sabah, Malaysia is well explained by Lee et al. (2004). There is an urgent need for establishing recreation areas in the form of urban forests near cities in developing countries (Atmis et al., 2007). In Beijing, forests in suburban areas have been attracting more and more domestic tourists, especially during weekends and holidays (Qu, 2003). These visitors not only create many jobs at local hotels, shops etc., but provide an opportunity for rural farmers to sell their agricultural produce and handicraft items made of wood and stones. At the same time, this provides a platform for the exchange of information between people living in urban areas and those living in rural areas. This stimulates the enthusiasm of local people to get involved in urban forestry (Liu et al., 2004). Respondents were asked particularly to mention the percentage contribution of greenery in the form of urban forestry of Chandigarh which was responsible for making the city attractive from tourism point of view. They were presented with a range of choices like 25%, 50%, 75%, 100 % or others. Under others category, they were free to record any other reason making city attractive for the tourists. Out of 904 respondents, 556 numbers (61.50 %) were of the view that urban greenery of the city was responsible to the extent of cent percent in making city attractive from tourism point of view. In

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other words, if urban parks/gardens were removed from the city; the tourism value of the city would become zero. About 27.50% of the tourists were of the opinion that urban parks/gardens were responsible to the extent of 75% in making the city attractive from tourism point of view, i.e., rest twenty five percent marks were credited to citys other features like architecture, infrastructure, culture etc from tourism point of view. Thus majority of the domestic tourists (89%) considered citys urban greenery in very high esteem as far as citys tourism scenario was concerned. Another question was added for the tourists who visited the city beautiful more than once during the last 1520 years and were requested to mention whether green cover of the city in the form of tree-avenues, parks and gardens etc. had improved or deteriorated during that period. Out of 904 numbers of respondents, 584 answered that they visited Chandigarh more than once during the last 1520 years. Out of these, 487 gave their opinion about improvement or deterioration in citys urban greenery. Maximum numbers of respondents (76.88%) were of the opinion that citys green cover and parks/gardens had improved during this period, while only 6.50% disagreed with this statement. The 16.62% did not answer the question as they were not in position to judge the situation about the citys greenery. By inserting such questions, respondents perception and interest in the field of urban greenery, parks/gardens, environmental conservation and landscaping was sought for.
Figure 1 Net recreational demand curve (see online version for colours)

Consumer surplus estimation

A detailed account about estimation of annual recreational use value of Chandigarh Citys urban parks and gardens has been given by Chaudhry and Tewari (2006). Zonal TCM was applied on the domestic tourists in the study and a consumer surplus per tourist

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visit of Rs. 308 (US$ 6.40) was estimated by developing net recreational demand curve (Figure 1) as per the procedure prescribed by US Water Resource Council (1983). This is a measure of average willingness to pay by the domestic tourists for the recreational benefits provided by the urban parks and gardens of the city. The revenue generation and total utility at this point would be at maximum (Figure 2). In economics-cardinal approach terminology, this amount pertains to the point of saturation i.e. at which the total utility reaches maximum and marginal utility becomes zero. In other words, we can say that after this point, the consumer (tourist) generally begins to get disutility from consumption of additional units of commodity (i.e., number of visits). Taking a conservative estimate of annual 0.30 millions of domestic tourists up to 1,000 kms from the site, annual recreational value of urban parks and gardens of the City Beautiful was estimated as Rs. 308 0.30 = Rs. 92.40 million (US$ 1.93 million).
Figure 2 Total utility cum revenue generation curve at different hypothetical entrance fee

Discussion and conclusions

Sustainable urban development seeks to build communities that balance and sustain themselves economically, socially and environmentally. A sustainable urban forest resource is one of the essential components of this grand mission. According to Brundtland Commission in 1987, sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It seeks to create communities that can sustain themselves on all the three fronts i.e. environmentally, socially and economically. Within this expansive mission is the goal of sustainable community design, also known as smart growth, which in part, seeks to revitalise communities, reduce sprawl and preserve open space. Most public parks and gardens in Europe, America and few Asian cities like Japan, China, levy a modest entrance fee and residents are accustomed to paying such charges. It

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is not a case in many of the Indian cities. At present, an entrance fee of Rs. 10 is being charged only at one place, i.e., Nek Chands Rock Garden, as far as Chandigarh Citys parks and gardens are concerned. This unique garden is not known for its vegetative character but for creation of beauty out of non biodegradable urban and industrial waste materials by its creator cum Director Nek Chand. Maximum numbers of the big and small forested parks/gardens of the city, numbering nearly to 2000, are maintained by the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh (MCC) and no entrance fee is charged for any of them. Reason is simple as elected representatives in developing countries are more fond and habitual of propagating populist schemes like waiving off bank loans, electricity bills, house tax etc just to remain in power, forget charging any entrance or gate fee to an environmental amenity like urban parks/gardens. It does not matter how these populist schemes affect state exchequer. For them, only aim is to capture power and to resort to all sorts of tactics to cling to power. There are very few among them, who have guts to convince citizens about charging of a nominal amount for their own welfare and benefit, whether these are nominal electricity and water charges for agriculture sector or urban parks/gardens entrance fee. James Michael Lyngdoh, a very reputed former chief election commissioner of India and Ramon Magsaysay award winner, had little faith in Indian politicians and called them even cheaters (News BBC, 2003). The net recreational demand curve (Figure 1) with negative exponential nature plotted between number of tourists as dependent variable and the travel cost plus hypothetical entrance fee as independent variable, indicates that up to an entrance fee of Rs. 25/-(US$ 0.52), there would not be any appreciable fall in tourist population, visiting the city. After that, there will be a continuous fall in tourists population as indicated in the Table 1. As a matter of fact, Rock Garden has emerged as number one or choicest spot for the tourists coming to the city (Chaudhry and Tewari, 2008), therefore, one composite entrance fee (meant for all citys parks and gardens) can be introduced here in place of Rs.10 being charged at present. Charging or introducing fee at other spots like Sukhna Lake, Rose Garden, Leisure Valley etc. does not seem to be administratively feasible because of the absence of proper boundaries and given the beauty of vegetative fencing (at most of the places) around such spots. Though revenue earning is at maximum at a hypothetical entrance fee of Rs. 308/- (Table 1 and Figure 2) but revenue maximisation is not the sole aim in a welfare state like India due to social obligation of local administration towards citizens of the country. In present circumstances, Rs. 25/- to 30/- as one composite entrance fee at Rock Garden, seems quite justified for the better maintenance of all parks/gardens of the city. It is worth mentioning that a cinema hall ticket costs more than Rs. 30/- in Chandigarh City and a tourist paying a first time visit to Nek Chands Rock Garden at Chandigarh can definitely expect experience worth Rs. 30/ticket at Rock Garden alone. Gardens like Rose Garden; Bougainvillea Garden, Garden of Fragrance, Leisure Valley etc., are additional ones which one may visit in this proposed Rs. 30/- entrance fee. At present around 3,0005,000 visitors are visiting Rock Garden daily and after Taj Mahal of Agra, it is most visited site in India (Raw Vision, 2005). This means on an average 0.09 millions tourists per month or 1.08 millions per year considering lower figure of 3,000 daily visitors. Therefore, annual revenue to the tune of Rs. 32 millions (US$ 0.67 million) based on newly proposed Rs. 30/- entrance fee can easily be generated. A lion share from this revenue, say two-thirds, can be diverted for the maintenance of Rock Garden and balance for other parks/gardens of the city. Reason for the diversion for major amount to Rock Garden is it being most favoured spot for the tourists as pointed out above. In this way, the expectations of citys residents as

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well as of visitors in providing well-maintained, clean and green landscaped spaces after charging designated amounts from them would be fulfilled and the City Beautiful of India would acquire the status of City of Gardens with out any iota of doubt in anybodys mind.
Table 1 Change in number of tourists and revenue generation with the hypothetical entrance fee Expected number of tourists/day 820 730 647 587 495 427 331 324 249 196 86 31 07 Revenue generation (Rs.) 20,500 36,500 48,525 58,700 74,250 85,400 99,300 99,792 99,600 98,000 86,000 46,500 14,000

Hypothetical entrance fee (Rs) 25 50 75 100 150 200 300 308 400 500 1000 1500 2000

Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of the principal authors Doctoral thesis work entitled Valuing recreational benefits of urban forestry a case study of Chandigarh City under Forest Research Institute University, Dehradun, India during 20022006.

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