Ecological scientists suggest the closing of a national marine park for one year for restoration purposes. It

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Question:

Ecological scientists suggest the closing of a national marine park for one year for restoration purposes. It is owned by the county, which allows free access to visitors. However, a parking fee of $10 per vehicle is required to enter the park. You are involved in estimating the economic losses to local businesses and are asked to find tourists' welfare loss as a result of this plan. Almost all visitors to the national marine park are families on a vehicle who come from the towns up to 100 miles from the park. Visitors are allocated to a particular zone, depending on their distance to the park. Zones are easily formed by drawing concentric rings around the site on a map.

An analyst for the county has collected data for a travel cost study to estimate the benefits of the national park.Visitors were asked to log in as they enter the national park and fill out an information form. He also observed a sample of visitors from which he estimated that each family who visited the site is composed of 4 individuals with 2 adults, on average.The following table summarizes the data he collected:

Zone Round Trip Travel Time (Hours) Miles from the park Total No. of Visitors

Zone 1 1 22 33,000

Zone 2 2 45 27,000

Zone 3 3 70 19,000

Zone 4 4 100 13,000

In order to translate the distance traveled into an estimate of the cost visitors faced in using the park, the analyst made the following assumptions.First, the average operating cost of vehicles is $0.50 per mile.Second, the opportunity cost to adults of travel time is 50 percent of their wage rate; it is zero for children.Fourth, adult visitors have the average county wage rate of $20 per hour.

a. Using the preceding information, calculate the travel cost per person from each zone.

b. Calculate the value of the national marine park for each zone and the overall value for the amenity (the annual welfare loss to tourists when the national park is closed).