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



1. Introduction and Motivation.

The Republic of Armenia is renowned for its distinctive historic buildings—
including churches, monasteries, fortresses and caravanserai—many of which date back
to the middle ages. These buildings are an essential part of the cultural heritage of the
Armenian people and make a great impression on tourists and visitors. Concerns over the
limited resources available for restoring and conserving these cultural heritage sites—
especially since the country’s independence from the former Soviet Union—and its
tendency to experience severe earthquakes have recently prompted international
organizations to take an interest in Armenia’s monuments. At this time, three Armenian
monasteries, one church and one archeological site are on the World Heritage Sites list,
and UNESCO considers 30% of Armenia’s cultural heritage sites at risk.

Presumably, cultural heritage sites attract many of the foreign visitors to
Armenia,
1 but little is known about the visitation rates by domestic visitors, despite the
importance of this information for prioritizing interventions, assigning funding and
personnel, and establishing management decisions and policies.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings from a travel cost method
(TCM) study conducted at four cultural heritage site locations in Armenia in order to
place a value on the conservation of these sites. Armenian visitors were intercepted by
professional interviewers at Garni, Haghardzin, Khor Virap and Tatev, and were
administered a questionnaire that queried them about this and other visits to the

1 The number of foreign tourists in Armenia has grown from 31,800 in 1998 to 206,000 in 2003, according
to the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development of Armenia. The re-opening of the cultural
monuments that were repaired in 2002-03 is thought to play a significant role in the growth of tourist flows
to Armenia (
http://www.minted.am/en/tourism.html). Thirty percent of these foreign visitors are from the
European Union, 20% from the United States, and 22% from former Soviet Republics.



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