Shahid Beheshti University Advanced Environmental Sciences 3115-7173 9 3 2012 03 20 Estimating the Recreational Value of the Caspian Sea Coast (Case Study: Radio-darya Recreational Coast of Chalous, Iran) Estimating the Recreational Value of the Caspian Sea Coast (Case Study: Radio-darya Recreational Coast of Chalous, Iran) 96395 FA Gholamali Sharzehi Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran Ahmad Samdeliri Ph.D. Student of Agricultural Economics, Tarbiat Modares University Journal Article 2015 05 17 In this research, the recreational value of the Radio-darya coast of the Chalous coastline was estimated, alongside the measure of visitors' willingness-to-pay (WTP), by using a contingent valuation (CV) method and dichotomous choice (DC) questionnaire. WTP was measured by using a Logit model which parameters were estimated based on the Maximum Likelihood (ML) Model for the year 2009. The results show that 65 percent of investigated individuals will pay for recreational usage of the aforementioned coast. The average WTP is 1169 Rials (about 1 USD) for each visit. Recreational monthly value of this coastal region is more than 37.75 million Rials (about 3230 USD); to be precise, the total annual recreational value of this area is estimated to be about 453 million Rials. Furthermore, the variables of "offer" and "visitors' income" are statistically significant at the level of 1%; so, these two variables are considered as the most important factors affecting visitors' WTP.The next factor influencing their WTP, from the point of view of visitors, is the quality of the coast (coastal neatness and water limpidity) which is significant at the 1% statistical level. Level of education is the next effective factor with significance at the 10% level. Moreover, distance between the coast and place of residence is the next factor affecting WTP negatively at the 10% level. In this research, the recreational value of the Radio-darya coast of the Chalous coastline was estimated, alongside the measure of visitors' willingness-to-pay (WTP), by using a contingent valuation (CV) method and dichotomous choice (DC) questionnaire. WTP was measured by using a Logit model which parameters were estimated based on the Maximum Likelihood (ML) Model for the year 2009. The results show that 65 percent of investigated individuals will pay for recreational usage of the aforementioned coast. The average WTP is 1169 Rials (about 1 USD) for each visit. Recreational monthly value of this coastal region is more than 37.75 million Rials (about 3230 USD); to be precise, the total annual recreational value of this area is estimated to be about 453 million Rials. Furthermore, the variables of "offer" and "visitors' income" are statistically significant at the level of 1%; so, these two variables are considered as the most important factors affecting visitors' WTP.The next factor influencing their WTP, from the point of view of visitors, is the quality of the coast (coastal neatness and water limpidity) which is significant at the 1% statistical level. Level of education is the next effective factor with significance at the 10% level. Moreover, distance between the coast and place of residence is the next factor affecting WTP negatively at the 10% level.

https://envs.sbu.ac.ir/article_96395_9f845cea8ee5364c1469c656948ebbdc.pdf