Overview: 

This model displays the conflict between the tourism and timber industry in Derby, Tasmania. It becomes a problem for the government officials when choosing the future policy direction. Our aim is to construct a model for simulation and find a equilibrium point to maximize the state benefit.

How Does the Model Work?

The key factor of the model is the value of the policy variable. It can take values between -1 and +1. The more it is close to +1 means that the policy government takes is more tourism-friendly. The more it is close to -1 means that the policy government takes is more timber-friendly.

Other than the policy variable, there are three sections for the model.

Section 1: The tourism

       We assume that there exist a population which contains the whole potential customers. The potential customers will make bike trips to Derby at a relatively stable rate. The input policy value will affect the satisfaction rate for the tourists. Some of them will provide positive feedbacks and become our potential customers again. On the other hand, those had bad experience will no longer make trips to Derby. All the tourists make consumption every month and part of the expense will become the tourism revenue. The average expense variable is also provided in this section.

Section 2: The timber industry

      The input policy variable will also affect the employment in the timber industry. It will partially determine the industry growth rate. Like the tourism, the sales/industry scale will generate monthly revenue for the industry at a given rate.

Section 3: The state benefit

      The revenue from the two industries will be added up. Our aim is to adjust the policy value to maximize the state benefit.

       Excessive logging may lead to environmental problems and it isn’t the best option for the whole state benefit. Based on the pre-set parameters and the model, we can see that the revenue contribution from the tourism is also considerable. According to our results, the policy value should be around 0.31, which represents the tourism-friendly policy.

Overview

It is a model simulating logging and adventure tourism (mountain bike riding) competition in Derby, Tasmania. It is a chance for northeast Tasmania to become an exciting, new, world-class product for the mountain bike tourism industry, which drives local economic development.

Simulation borrowed from the Easter Island simulation.

How the model works

l  Trees grow; we cut them down because of demand for Timber and sell the logs.

l  The mountain bike visits depend on previous experience and suggestions.

l  Previous experience and suggestions depend on the number of trees compared to visitors and adventure number of trees and users. Park capacity limits the number of mountain bike trail users.

l  The employment opportunity depends on the mountain bike demand and demand for Timber.

Interesting Insights

Mountain biking appears to be unaffected by heavy logging. The visitor experience and numbers are improved by reducing park capacity. The main issue is that any success with the mountain bike park increases visitor numbers. A high timber price is also required to balance the park's popularity. Mountain biking appears to require only a narrow corridor; that is, single-track mountain bike trails are enough. The employment is a measure of the economic acting, a recession or growth trends.