Non-market Valuation of Tiya Megalithic World Cultural Heritage of Ethiopia, Application of Travel Cost and Contingent Valuation Methods

Mekonnen Bersisa,Abebe Belachew,Hayatu Mude

doi:10.11648/j.ajere.20200503.13

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to estimate the total economic value of Tiya megalithic world cultural heritage site using non-market valuation methods of Travel Cost Method (TCM) and Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). The study uses Individual Travel Cost Method to estimate the use value and the Double Bounded Contingent Valuation Method to investigate the mean Willingness to Pay for the nonuse value of the Tiya MWCH site. The truncated Poisson regression method (TPRM) was employed to derive the demand function for the use value of Tiya MWCH site and the bivariate probit model were used to estimate the nonuse value of Tiya MWCH site. The regression result showed that travel cost, monthly income, total travel time, sex, family size, household head, purpose of visit, membership in any environmental group and knowledge are important determinants of the recreational demand of the site. The result of the study also showed that the potential annual use value of the Tiya MWCH site was estimated to be 9,615,508.00 ETB per year and the nonuse value (one time contribution of community residents of Tiya town) of the site is 64,494.20 ETB. Finally, we recommend that to maintenances and maximize the benefits that can be derived from the Tiya MWCH site.

Highlights

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates that the Travel and Tourism sector accounts for 9.5% of global GDP, a total of US$ 7 trillion, and 5.4% of world exports
The coefficients of total travel cost is negative which means that the higher the cost is for the trip; the lower is the visit rate to the site per year. This is consistent with expectations i.e. the demand theory, which stipulates that when the price of travel increases the number of visits will decrease, and it is a necessary condition for the ITCM model to be valid
Estimation of the Willingness to Pay for the Nonuse Value of Tiya megalithic World cultural heritage (MWCH) Site

Summary

Introduction

The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) estimates that the Travel and Tourism sector accounts for 9.5% of global GDP, a total of US$ 7 trillion, and 5.4% of world exports. Encouraging the development of the Travel and Tourism sector is even more important as the Travel and Tourism industry continues to play a key role as a driver of growth and job creation, growing at 4% in 2014 and providing 266 million jobs, directly and indirectly. This means that the industry accounts for one in 11 jobs on the planet, a number that could even rise to one in 10 jobs by 2022, according to the WTT [1]. This is due to lack of rigorous empirical studies on visitors’ valuation of the historical sites in addition to other complex socio-economic problems [3]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion