Estimating The Recreational Value of Najvan Park Based on Individual Travel Cost Method (ITCM)

Urban parks have recreational value for people's leisure time and for this reason, environmental economists pay attention to estimation of economic value and understanding their impact on welfare of urban society. In this study, individual travel cost method is used for estimating the value of Nazhvan park’s recreational services. Sample size was calculated to be 508. A logarithmic regression model was used in the Individual travel cost method for assessing the impact of explanatory variables on the number of visits. In order to achieve this goal, travel function has been estimated in form of linear, logarithmic, linear-logarithmic and logarithmic-linear functions, among which logarithmic function was selected based on statistical significance. In the logarithmic model, 10 of 15 independent variables were significant. According to the results, consumer surplus for each visit during a year is equal to 0.79 million Rials for a group of three people and 0.24­ million Rials for each visitor. Comparing our results with Sameti et al.(1391), demonstrates that welfare surplus per visit in individual travel cost method is 14.24 percent less than marginal willingness to pay in contingent valuation method.