Estimating the value of the World Heritage Site designation: a case study from Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park, Nepal

ABSTRACT

This paper estimates the economic value of World Heritage Site (WHS) designation for the Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park, Nepal. In 2012, entrance fees were $30 per international visitor; lower fees apply to South Asian visitors, and no fees to domestic visitors. We surveyed 522 international visitors to the Park in 2011 to elicit their willingness to pay (WTP) for access, using the contingent valuation method. Logistic regression results show that bid amounts, gender, age, educational attainment, use of a guide, length of stay in the park, information about park substitutes, and knowledge about the park's WHS designation predicted visitors’ WTP decisions. The median WTP amount was US$90.93 per trip; 63.8% of visitors were willing to pay more than the existing entry fee. The revenue maximizing entry fee was $80 per trip. Knowledge about the park's WHS designation prior to their trip contributed $16.39 to the median WTP: better marketing of the site's WHS status could add up to US$ 566, 619 to the site's annual income. Given that many protected areas now suffer falling public sector financial help, accurate knowledge of WTP is increasingly key to supporting sustainable management in WHS sites, and in justifying tourism to them.

KEYWORDS:

• Contingent valuation
• economic value
• park entry fee
• willingness to pay
• World Heritage Site
• visitor management

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank visitors who participated in the survey for their generous help and time. The Snow Leopard Conservancy, US, provided the research grant to conduct the fieldwork. Sirgid Smith, Lukas Rinnhofer, Georgina Cullman, Malcolm McCallum, Kathy Frame, Aeshita Mukherjee, Alexandra Bosbeer, Yaniv Poria, and Yash Veer Bhatnagar provided invaluable comments on the draft survey instrument. Ranju Baral and Prakash Poudel helped with the figures.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The Snow Leopard Conservancy, http://snowleopardconservancy.org/.

Notes on contributors

Nabin Baral

Nabin Baral is a research associate in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. He is interested in human dimensions of natural resource management, resilience of social-ecological systems, sustainable tourism and protected areas management. He researches the intricate linkages between nature and society. He received a master's degree in ecology from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, a master's degree in environmental science from Florida International University, and a doctorate degree in forestry from Virginia Tech.

Sapna Kaul

Sapna Kaul is an assistant professor of health economics, in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Texas. She received a PhD degree from Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on implementing economic tools (e.g. cost-benefit analyses and contingent valuation) examining individual decision making about healthcare services and environmental goods.

Joel T. Heinen

Joel Heinen is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University. Prior to his PhD degree at the University of Michigan, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal and focuses his research there on protected areas management, and biodiversity conservation policy.

Som B. Ale

Som Ale is a wildlife ecologist. He works on snow leopard research, education and conservation, and teaches ecology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.