Estimating Visitor's Willingness to Pay for the Pasargad Historical Palaces: Using Contingent Valuation Method

The aim of this study is to examine the main determinants of visitor's willingness to Pay (WTP) for the Pasargad Historical Palaces using contingent valuation method (CVM). To this end, the data are collected using questionnaire throughout a random sample of the citizens of Isfahan, Shiraz and Marvdasht. The data include socio-economic information and visitor's willingness to pay. The variables considered in the WTP model comprise gender, age, education, occupation, income, household size, environmental attitude and distance. Considering the characteristics of the data, the Probit and Tobit techniques are employed to estimate the model. The empirical results indicate that the average visitors’ willingness to pay is 114530 Rials. Moreover, the results confirm that the gender, household size, distance and income have statistically significant effects on visitors’ willingness to pay. However, the results show that the women are more likely to pay more than men. Based on the individuals willingness to pay and the number of visitors, the value of Pasargad Palaces from the point of view of the domestic visitors and consumption surplus exceed to 6640 and 6060 million Rials, respectively.