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International Conference
BUILDING
INSIGHTS OF MANAGERIAL ECONOMICS AND ACCOUNTING TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FOREST
MANAGEMENT May 17 19, 2007
IUFRO Unit 4.05.00 - Managerial Economics and AccountingIUFRO Unit 4.05.01 - Managerial, social and environmental accounting IUFRO Unit 4.05.02 - Managerial economics |
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Survey on the Public Needs and Market Demands from Forest Land Use
Héjj, Botond, Institute of Mathematics and Economics, University of West Hungary, Hungary
E-mail: hejjb@emk.nyme.hu
Hegedűs, Attila, Institute of Mathematics and Economics, University of West Hungary, Hungary
E-mail: hegedus@forcons.hu
In the framework of a FAO project, the Institute of Forest Assets Management - recently renamed as Institute of Mathematics and Economics - (University of West Hungary) carried out a research on monitoring the eco-tourist use of Hungarian forests from several aspects. An important role within these can be assigned to the investigation of the demand side.
Four different questionnaires were developed such as questioning of forest visitors, questioning of tourism enterprises, questioning of tour operators, and questioning of urban population. The project had tight schedule: three months from developing of questionnaire to finalizing of the research report. At present, this study focuses on aspects of forest visitors (23 questions) and urban population (40 questions). These questionnaires were filled out in 9 big cities in Hungary. These are partly the biggest cities, partly those lying close to the pilot area, namely: Debrecen, Miskolc, Salgótarján, Szeged, Pécs, Székesfehérvár, Budapest, Győr and Sopron.
Each question was not only analysed separately, but compared with relevant ones. In case of urban population, the following statements can be summarised as part results: a, people visit forest areas in summer time with greatest frequency (67,5% at least monthly), while the least in winter time (33% at least once per month), b, visiting rate is somewhat higher for female than male, c, people from 40-60 year-old age-group are the most characterized forest visitors, as long as above 60 years old are the smallest visitor group, d, visiting rate is in direct ratio to educational level and incomes, as well. e, 37,8 % of forest visitors spends less than an hour in the forest, but the rate for visitors who spend more than half day is comparatively high (26,2 %), f, females stay longer time than males in forest, g, middle-aged people stay the shortest time in forest. Aged people usually spend 2-4 hours, but under 30 generation spend the longest time for forest trips. h, generally, people who take short (half an hour) visits in forest have lower qualification than average.
Keywords: ecotourism, forest land use, urban demand, public need, questionnaires
