Estimation of the Willingness to Pay of Kordasht Recreational Village Visitors in East Azerbaijan Province

Kordasht، a village of Jolfa located in East Azerbaijan Province، has become one of the greatest recreational places in the province though having many attractions. Therefore، studying its recreational value can be effective in anticipating needs، removing shortages and in the development of tourism in the district. The aim of the current research is to estimate the recreational value of Kordasht village using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). A Logit Model was estimated using Maximum Likelihood Approach in order to investigate the effective factors on individual willingness to pay. The required data were collected through completing questionnaires and oral interviews with 180 visitors. Results showed that 83% of visitors are willing to pay some money to visit the village. Also، variables that included level of education، village attraction، income and prices offered (bid) had a significant effect on the probability of anticipated willingness to pay، whereas other variables such as age، gender and family size were not statistically significant. Visitors'' expected willingness to pay was set at 2800 RLs and the recreational annual value of the village was estimated to be 280 million RLs. According to findings، there is the possibility to increase tourism revenue by considering the visitors'' point of view.