12
average) expenses are incurred for, we obtain cost per trip per person. This ranges from
40 to 25,000 AMD, averages 4,648 AMD, and has a median value of 3,400 AMD.8
Regarding their experience at the site, people complained about the quality of the
local roads to Tatev, found the cleanliness of the four sites acceptable, praised the beauty
of the monuments and their natural settings, and did not report problems with congestion
levels. Over three-quarters of the Garni and Khor Virap visitors reported that these are in
“good” or “very good” state of conservation, but only about one-third of the Haghardzin
and Tatev visitors rated the state of these monuments as “good” or “very good.”
C. Contingent Behavior Questions.
When asked how their visits would be affected by the implementation of the
program, assuming that the cost of visiting the site was the same as now, 47.6% of the
respondents stated that they would visit more often. When a respondent stated he would
visit the site more often after the works were completed, we asked him to tell us how
many times he would visit in a year. Intended visits ranged from zero to 50, and averaged
3.49 per year. If the cost of a trip were increased by 20%, about 29% of the respondents
would visit more. On average, these persons would visit 3 times a year.
In table 3, we examine contingent behaviors by site. The site where the program
would bring—on average—the largest increase in the number of visits is Garni. Khor
Virap stands out, relative to the other sites, for the fact that only 20% of the respondents
at this locale would visit more often if the program were implemented and there was a
8 We note that while everyone reported information about the total cost of the present trip, missing values
for the number of people for whom the cost is incurred result in only 469 valid observations for the price of
the trip per person.