Valuing cultural heritage: a contingent valuation study of temples in Chiang Saen

Abstract

This paper presents a study of willingness to pay of Thai population to preserve historic temples in Chiang Saen, ancient city in Chiang Rai, Thailand as those temples are at risk of degradation and deterioration. This study aims to estimate the factors that affect willingness to pay of people for cultural heritage in Chiang Saen and to investigate willingness to pay and its attributions. The contingent valuation method was used as a valuation technique to conduct an economic valuation of non-market values of preservation of the ancient temples. The results show that Thai people have optimistic perception and attitude toward the cultural heritage in Chiang Saen ancient city since most of the respondents in the study stated their positive WTP on the preservation programme.