Using contingent valuation to estimate the willingness of tourists to pay for urban forests: A study in Savannah, Georgia

This study estimated the monetary value of urban forests’ non-priced benefits to tourists. Data collected by a face-to-face self-administered survey of urban tourists in Savannah, Georgia, USA were used to estimate tourists’ willingness to pay (WTP) for urban forests by the contingent valuation method. Individual WTP was found higher among tourists with graduate school education. Results suggested that WTP for urban forests also increased significantly with income and destination loyalty of the tourists. Estimated mean and median WTP values were $11.25 (95% confidence interval: $7.34, $15.16) and $2.10 (95% confidence interval: $1.38, $2.82), respectively. Based on the estimated mean WTP, annual value of urban forests to tourists in Savanna in 2009 ranged from a minimum of $81 million to a maximum of $167 million with a 95% confidence interval. The annual value was $11.55 million (95% confidence interval: $7.59 million, $15.51 million) based on the estimated median WTP and assuming at least 50% of the tourists in Savannah would pay the median amount. As the mean was greatly influenced by extreme WTP values in the data, the annual value based on the median value was a more conservative estimate.