Determinants of Visitors’ Willingness to Pay for Mianjangal Ecotourism Area in Fasa County

Subject Areas : Environmental Economics

Samad Erfanifar ¹ (Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics, Darab College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran. *(Corresponding Author))
hassan azarm ² (Ph.D. Students of Natural Resources and Environmental Economics, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.)
Navid Kargar Dehbidi ³ (Ph.D. Students of Natural Resources and Environmental Economics, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.)

Received: 2019-10-21 Accepted : 2020-10-13 Published : 2021-11-22

Keywords: Bid vector, Censored normal regression, Contingent Valuation, Mianjangal ecotourism area,

Abstract :

Background and Objective: Economic valuation by quantifying the benefits is an effective step towards improving environmental policies to sustain and develop the ecotourism industry. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the tourists’ willingness of to pay to visit Mianjangal ecotourism area in Fasa County. Material and Methodology: The required data were collected by single-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method through completing questionnaires from a random sample of 542 tourists in April 2019. The censored normal regression model was used to estimate the visitors' willingness to pay and identify the factors affecting it. Findings: The results showed that willingness to pay to visit this ecotourism area is negatively affected both by the age of household head and by the household size. Also, the effect of educational level of head of household, household income and annual recreational trips to natural areas on tourists’ willingness to pay was estimated to be significantly positive. Based on the effect of gender variable, female- headed households are more willing to pay than male-headed households. The average tourists’ willingness to pay for a one-day staying at Mianjangal ecotourism site was estimated at 205205 Rial. Discussion and Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, government supportive policies are proposed to increase the purchasing power of low-income and crowded household; and furthermore, increasing household ecotourism information can lead to the spread of tourism culture and to rise the number of recreational trips to the study area.  

References:

1. Fennell, D. A. 2007. Ecotourism. Routledge.


2. White, P. C. L., Lovett, J. C. 1997. Public preferences and willingness to pay for nature conservation in the North York Noors National Park. UK. Journal of Environmental Management, Vol., 55, No., 1, pp: 1-13.


3. Nelson, C., Botterill, D. 2002. Evaluating the Contribution of Beach Quality Awards to the Local Tourism Industry in Wales, the Green Cost Awards, Cardiff, and University of Wales Institute.


4. Amirnejad, H., Khalilian, S., Assareh, M. H. 2006. The preservation and use values determination of Sisangan Forest Park, Nowshahr by using individual’s willingness-to-pay. Pajouhesh Va Sazandgi, Vol. 72, pp: 15-24. (In Persian)


5. Fasa Mianjangal Protected Area. Retrieved from:www.iew.ir/1391/06/14/1560. on March 4, 2019.


6. Loomis, J. B., Walsh, R. G. 1997. Recreation economic decisions; comparing benefits and costs Venture Publishing Inc..


7. Lee, C., Han, S. 2002. Estimating the use and preservation values of national parks tourism resources using a contingent valuation method. Tourism Management, Vol. 23, pp: 531-540.


8. Nabin Barala, M., Stern, J., Ranju, B. 2008. Contingent valuation of ecotourism in Annapurna conservation area, Nepal: Implications for sustainable park finance and local development. Ecological Economics, Vol. 66, pp: 218-227.


9. Osorio, M. H., Mittelhammer, R. C. 2012. An Information-Theoretic Approach to Modeling Binary Choices: Estimating Willingness to Pay for Recreation Site Attributes. Selected Paper prepared for the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association’s 2012 AAE, Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, August 12-14.


10. Yashoda, A., Reddy, B. V. C. 2012. Recreationists Willingness to Pay for Conservation of a Forest ecosystem: An Economic study of Basavana Betta State Forest, Karnataka state, India. Selected Poster prepared for presentation at the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) Triennial Conference, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, August 18-24.


11. Amirnejad, H., Khalilian, S., Assareh, M. H. 2006. Estimating the existence value of north forests of Iran by using a contingent valuation method. Ecological Economics, Vol. 58, pp: 665-675.


12. Amirnejad, H., Khalilian, S. 2007. Estimation of tourist value of Golestan National Park.5th National Conference of Agricultural Economics..Augest, 29, Zahedan- Iran. (In Persian)

13.   Hashemnejad, H., Feizi, M., Seddigh, M. 2011. Determining the Recreational Value of Nour Forest Park (NFP) in Mazandaran, Using Contingent Valuation. Journal of Environmental Studies, Vol. 37, No. 57, pp: 129-136. (In Persian)

14.   sayade, F.,  rafee, H. 2015. The Comparison Between Public Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Recreation for Sorkhe Hesar and Other Forest Parks in Iran.Environmental Researches, Vol. 5, No. 10, pp: 35-42. (In Persian)

15.   Sajadi, J., Moslemi, A.,  Samadi, R. 2017. Estimation of economic value of tourism regions (Case of study: Rudbar-Qasran). Tourism Management Studies, Vol. 11, No, 35, pp: 1-8. (In Persian)

16. Haidari, Chianeh, R., Raheli, H., Fekri, F. 2017. Evaluation of Urban Tourism Attractions Through Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), Shorabil Attractions Case Study in Ardabil. Urban Tourism Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp: 57-70. (In Persian)


17. Bishop, R. C., Boyle, K. J. 2019. Reliability and Validity in Nonmarket Valuation. Environmental & Resource Economics, Vol. 72, No. 2, pp: 559-582.


18. Johnston, R. J., Boyle, K. J., Adamowicz, W., Bennett, J., Brouwer, R., Cameron, T. A., Tourangeau, R. 2017. Contemporary guidance for stated preference studies. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp: 319-405.


19. Cooper, J. C. 1993. Optimal bid selection for dichotomous choice contingent valuation surveys. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp: 25-40.


20. Cameron, T. A. 1988. A new paradigm for valuing non-market goods using referendum data: maximum likelihood estimation by censored logistic regression. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp: 355-379.


21. Cameron, T. A., James, M. D. 1987. Efficient estimation methods for closed-ended contingent valuation surveys. The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 2, pp: 269-276.


22. Hanemann, W. M. 1984. Welfare evaluations in contingent valuation experiments with discrete responses. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 66, No. 3, pp: 332-341.


23. Cameron, T. A. 1991. Interval estimates of non-market resource values from referendum contingent valuation surveys. Land Economics, Vol. 64, No. 4, pp: 413-421.


24. Haab, T. C., McConnell, K. E. 1998. Referendum models and economic values: theoretical, intuitive, and practical bounds on willingness to pay. Land Economics, Vol. 74, No. 2, pp: 216-229.


25. Lusk, J. L. 2003. Effects of cheap talk on consumer willingness-to-pay for golden rice. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 84, No. 4, pp: 840-856.


26. Duffield, J. W., Patterson, D. A. 1991. Inference and optimal design for a welfare measure in dichotomous choice contingent valuation. Land Economics, Vol. 67, No. 2, pp: 225-239.


27. Scheaffer, R. L., Mendenhall III, W., Ott, R. L., Gerow, K. G. 2011. Elementary survey sampling. Cengage Learning.