Estimating Health Tourist's Willingness to Pay (Case of Sarein Spring's Visitors)

Sarein is one the touristic cities of Ardabil province, known for its hot springs and hydrotherapy spots. In light of this, investigating the tourists’ views and demands for this place can be useful in predicting needs,removing scarcities and developing tourism industry in this city. Taking advantage of the two-stage Heckman approach, this study estimates the tourists’ WTP for visiting JamishGoli, Sabalan and BeshBajilar – three of Sarein hot springs. Also it deals with assessing the causes of tourists’ visits to Sarein, and the state of the city’s amenities in the tourists’ eyes. Requested data sets were obtained through the questionnaires and interviews of 646 individuals who visited the mentioned hot springs. Results revealed that the mean WTP for each visit to JamishGoli, Sabalan and BeshBajilar equals 19700, 33400 and 29000 RLs respectively.