Evaluation of the Non-Use Values of Tourist Resources of Dunhuang
摘要
This paper introduces concepts of non-use values of tourist resources and its research method-the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM), which is the most effective method in assessing the non-use values of environmental resources and in which a great attention to three aspects influencing the accuracy, such as the numbers of the sample, the deviating answers, and the population should be paid. According to those aspects, the author designed CV questionnaire and made spot check at some resorts of Dunhuang in 2002. Social-economic characteristics of Tourists, willingness to pay (WTP) and values of WTP were obtained. Then the author analyses social-economic characteristic of tourist and draws several important conclusions. Making correlation analyses and tests among tourists' social-economic characteristics, the WTP and the values of WTP, the author gets some useful results. The median of the values of WTP is 30.00 RMB, which is similar to the results of Xue Da-yuan's study on Changbaishan Mountain Reserve (33.30 RMB) and Chen Fu's study on Jiuzhaigou Scenic Spot (35.23 RMB). Through analyzing the motivations of willingness to pay and the reasons of not willing to pay, the author found that people who chose to protect Dunhuang's tourist resources as motivation accounts for 43.99 percent, to protect world heritage accounts for 46.55 percent, to protect for future using accounts for 9.46 percent. The calculated per capital WTP is 20.29 RMB annually and the estimated non-use values of tourist resources in Dunhuang is 12.0 Million RMB, existence value is 5.28 Million RMB,bequest value is 5.58 Million RMB and option value is 1.14 Million RMB. This paper also clarified the factors affecting the accuracy of evaluation results and provided a theory basis for protection and sustainable use of tourist resources in Dunhuang.