Estimation of the Willingness to Pay of Citizens for Agritourism Services Case study of Qazvin

Nowadays designing win-win strategies on the basis of multifunctional agriculture is one of the most important conditions for surviving of agricultural lands. These strategies should design in such a way that could conserve agricultural land use، improve farmers’ income while provide environmental and social services through farming systems. One of the basic solutions may be considered in designing win-win strategies is sustainable agritourism. Agritourism has long been considered a means of accomplishing economic and social development. It has been promoted as an effective source of income and employment. Global restructuring، including improved production methods and free trade، together with changing consumer trends، has led to profound changes in rural economies، particularly for small farmers. This new situation necessitates diversifying farming activities and provides a greater interest in new agricultural niche markets. Development of agritourism is recognized as an internal element in the revitalization of rural areas through tourism. Agritourism is an entrepreneurial approach which would lead to positive impacts by appropriate management. Because of either the mood of pessimism about the excessive، irregular، and continuous growth of urban areas or the desire to escape from the stresses of everyday life or the noble allure of green space، suburban spaces، or pristine and untouched areas، individuals communicate with nature as a part of their ordinary recreational cycle. According to the estimations، 77. 5 percent of Iranian population would reside urban until 2032. This change could present suitable opportunity for agritourism development and creation of supplementary income for farmers and consequently for reduction of agricultural land use change. But lack of dynamic and learning agricultural management has increased vulnerability of Iranian farmers and has declined their investment ability in order to improve land productivity. Despite groundwork and many possibilities for agritourism development in Iran، no study has been done to estimate potential demand for agritourism services and effective factors on it.

This study employed contingent valuation and double-bounded dichotomous choice method to estimate willingness to pay for agritourism services in Qazvin، Iran. Population of the study included Qazvin citizens over 18 years of age who had visited agricultural and rural areas at least on time in the last year. The sample size estimated 153 persons and a total of 180 questionnaires were completed via face to face interviews. One of the most widely used techniques for ecological valuation has been the contingent valuation method (CVM). It involves asking people directly what value they would place on an amenity if a market existed for it. Also a Logit Model was estimated using Maximum Likelihood Approach in order to investigate the effective factors on individual willingness to pay (WTP).

Information about respondents’ socioeconomic characteristics included their age، gender، residential area، marital status، education level، occupation، distance to agricultural and rural destination، family size، and income. The results indicated that the respondents’ ages ranged from 18 to 69 year old with an average age of 35. 67.

showed that average of respondents’ family size was 4 person and they travel to agricultural and rural areas at an average of 6. 5 times annually. Number of visits from these destinations ranged from 1 to 30 times. The respondents preferred 35. 7 kilometer as maximum distance to agritourism destinations. The results of this study provide some evidence that diversifying farms into tourism activities and consequently developing a successful entrance fee program can provide additional revenue to alleviate the financial shortage faced by small farmers. The mean of WTP projected 53400 rails per each visit and for using some agritourism services. As this estimation was statistically significant and as about 80 percent of citizens accept one of the suggested amounts، it would be concluded that there is appropriate potential market for development of agritourism enterprises. Results showed that variables of “annual number of travel to rural-agricultural environments”، “family size” and dummy variables of “having car” and “place of born” had a significant effect on the anticipated willingness to pay of citizens.

The coefficient for annual number of travel to rural-agricultural environments was negative. It implies that the more travel to these areas annually، the less the number of respondents who are willing to pay the suggested amount. So planners of agritourism development should focus on citizens with lower times of visit from rural-agricultural environments. Negative coefficient of family size indicated that increase of family members، decreases willingness to pay for agritourism among respondents. Thus new and young families should be first priority of marketing plans. Totally based on the findings، a fee-paying program could be developed that is acceptable to visitors and helps to ensure high-quality recreational opportunities in farms. It seems reasonable for policy makers to at least consider an entrance fee as one of the funding alternatives for agritourism development.