Public's willingness to pay for a marina port in Korea: A contingent valuation study

Abstract

With there being increasing demand for marine leisure activities, the Korean government is looking to carry out marina port development projects. Specifically, the Gogunsan marina port is under consideration for construction in Korea, owing to its development feasibility. This study attempts to estimate the public value of the marina port development project by using the contingent valuation (CV) method. To this end, a CV survey by person-to-person interview was administered to 1000 randomly selected households to elicit their willingness to pay (WTP) for the project. Overall, the respondents accepted the contingent market, and on average, the mean WTP for the project was estimated to be approximately KRW 1840 (USD 1.6) per year per household. The results can be used in policy-makers' decision-making regarding the economic feasibility of constructing the marina port.