The Value of Cultural Heritage Sites in Armenia: Evidence From a Travel Cost Method Study



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For the average visitor in the population, the welfare change for the public
program with an emphasis on the cultural experience is 7,210 AMD, that for the
infrastructure program 5,490 AMD, and that for the SERVICE program 8,270 AMD per
year. When aggregated over the population of visitors—and ignoring those persons who
start visiting the site after the conservation program is implemented—the total welfare
change is thus $3.690 million a year for the cultural program, $2.800 million a year for
the infrastructure program, and $4.230 million for the services program (US dollars).

Clearly, these figures suggest that public programs that maintain, restore, and
enhance the cultural experience at the monuments, or make it easier to get and spend time
there,
are highly valued by Armenian visitors. One interesting finding is that people
value improved hospitality services. This leads to speculate that, although people do not
spend much on food and lodging at the site now, they may do so in the future as they
become wealthier and accommodations and eating establishments become increasingly
available. Our survey respondents complained about the quality of many of the roads to
the site, and indeed they would be prepared to pay for improved road quality, although
not quite as much as they would be prepared to pay for programs that emphasize the
cultural experience and tourist services.

In sum, our study deploys the travel cost/contingent behavior method to a novel
context—valuing cultural heritage sites—and is, to our knowledge, the first application of
these approaches to a former Soviet republic. The results of the study are plausible, and
the responses to both the actual and hypothetical exhibit good construct validity, in the
sense that they are well predicted by trip price, location, hypothetical scenario, and other
individual characteristics of the respondent.



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