| Abstrakt: |
The traditional pricing studies are mostly based on demand and supply models, and set price to maximize profit. However, ticket price of tourist attractions is determined by both market and policy factors. Price not only needs to meet the motivation of pursuing profits, but also should consider the ecological carrying capacity and the level of social welfare. Profit, ecological carrying capacity, and social welfare are going into voting paradox among tourist attractions, government and tourists. Based on "Kaldo-Hicks Improvement", if a person's situation has changed so that he is able to compensate for the loss of another person with a surplus, then the overall efficiency can be improved. For ticket pricing, if a participant is able to provide compensation to the other, the voting paradox of tourist attractions management objectives can be solved. This paper developed a mathematical model of optimal profits, ecological carrying capacity and social welfare for tourist attractions. The results show that if a tourist attraction aims for optimal profit, the set price of ticket will be higher than that at the industry's maximum profit, the total profits is lower than the industry's maximum profits, pricing should therefore be based on the industry's profit maximization. If ecological carrying capacity is less than the number of the industry's optimal profits, visitor numbers should be controlled under the ecological carrying capacity, which will need third-party compensation. Otherwise out of self-interest, tourist attractions will not take the initiative to control the numbers of visitors. When pricing is based on social welfare, if a unit change in ticket price leads to visitors' utility change at more than one unit, welfare-based pricing should be used. Free of admission charge is not always an optimal choice. On this basis, we research into the pricing mechanism of Hangzhou West Lake from comprehensive and dynamic perspectives. Before 2002, West Lake took profit maximization as the goal, to charge relatively higher ticket prices, and tourism resources have not been effectively utilized; 2003 to 2011, West Lake too industry profit maximization and social welfare optimization as the goals, tickets are free, resources get efficiently used, and economic benefits get significantly upgraded. After 2012, West Lake takes ecological carrying capacity and social welfare optimization as goals, and begins to limit the number of visitors, but the tickets are still free. In the foreseeable future, there will be diverse forms of ownership participating in the tourism industry, and tourist attractions ticket pricing will become more complex. However, no matter what type of tourist attractions, with the transformation of life cycle and the external environment, ticket price makers should be based on the property of tourist attractions to select pricing objectives for the optimization of ticket pricing [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
