Ecotourism Potentials for Financing Parks and Protected Areas: A Perspective From Iran’s Parks

Author(s)

Mahdi Kolahi, Tetsuro Sakai, Kazuyuki Moriya, and Mohammad Aminpour

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DOI:10.17265/1548-6583/2013.01.010

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ABSTRACT

Ecotourism has been considered as the impetus and economic investment for management of natural resources. The current research uses data mining from the recreation values of Iran’s parks and separating influential factors on visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP). This study delves into the main findings of 31 researches applied to assess the recreation value of 33 different parks across Iran from 2004 to 2011. Those researches collected 9,216 questionnaires in total. It was conducted using R software and Rattle user interface to analyze gathered data and information. Results showed that 69% of respondents were male. The averages of age and academic years were 34.4 and 13.7 respectively. The majority of the visitors were willing to pay money to visit the parks. Variables of education levels, household size, marital status, age, and bid amount had an effect on visitors’ rate of WTP for visiting, and variables of gender, education levels, and marital status affected the general amount of WTP. The average amount of WTP per person was estimated at US $1.4, and the average annual recreation value for each hectare of parks was calculated at US $2,313. This study provides justification for the decision to support the quality of Iran’s parks.

KEYWORDS

Iran, park, recreation value, willingness to pay (WTP)

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