Valuing access to protected areas in Nepal: The case of Chitwan National Park

• We estimated visitors' willingness-to-pay (WTP) fee to access Chitwan National Park.
• Visitors' mean WTP is substantially higher (>2.5 times) than the current entry fee.
• WTP is positively affected by visit experience but negatively by candidate entry fees.
• At revenue maximising entry fee, park revenue would increase by more than 80%.
• Increased entry fee generates revenue for conservation and development activities.

This paper investigates the international and domestic visitors' willingness to pay (WTP) an entry fee at Chitwan National Park (CNP) in Nepal, the factors affecting their WTP, and the trade-offs among entry fees, visitation demand and park revenue. Based on the contingent valuation surveys of 222 non-South Asian, 48 South Asian, and 40 domestic visitors, the logit regression results suggest that the visitors have a substantially higher WTP than the current entry fees. Depending on visitor categories, the estimated mean WTP per visitor per day was at least 2.5 times higher than the existing entry fee. The WTP is positively affected by the visitor's CNP experience. The current fees capture only about 21% of consumer surplus derived from CNP access. Doubling the current entry fees would modestly decrease the number of CNP visitors (<19%) but substantially increase the park revenue (>61%).