Valuing Rural Recreation Benefits. The Case of the Jike-Furusatomura Village.

The individual travel-cost method was used to value non-market recreation benefits derived by individual visitors to the Jike-Furusatomura village in the northernmost of Yokohama. Results, in terms of consumer surplus estimates per visit, are presented for all informal recreation visitors and by characteristics of individual visitors. The estimated average consumer surplus per visit is 1, 457 yen, and varies from 1, 784 yen for visitors who have strong preferences to outdoor receation activities to 894 yen for visitors who come quite often to the village with no accompany. The total economic value of recreational benefits was entimated at 268 million yen annually.