Public willingness to pay for transforming Jogyesa Buddhist Temple in Seoul, Korea into a cultural tourism resource

The Jogyesa Buddhist Temple (JBT), located in Seoul, Korea, is the chief temple of the Jogye Order, which represents Korean Buddhism. The Seoul government plans to transform the JBT into a cultural tourism resource and a historical site. This study attempts to analyze the willingness to pay (WTP) for implementing the transformation, which includes building a new shopping arcade for Buddhist culture and tourism, constructing a museum for the teaching of history and an experience center for Korean traditional culture in the precincts of JBT, and making an open space for domestic and/or foreign visitors. To this end, the study looks into the WTP for the implementation, reporting on a contingent valuation (CV) survey that was conducted with 500 Seoul households. The single-bounded dichotomous choice CV model and a spike model were applied to derive the WTP responses and analyze the WTP data with zero observations, respectively. The mean yearly WTP was computed to be KRW7129 (USD 6.30) per household for the next five years, with the estimate being statistically significant at the 1% level. Expanding the value to the Seoul population gives us KRW25.4 billion (USD 22.5 million) per year. The present value of the total WTP amounts to KRW 114.6 billion (USD 101.3 million) using a social discount rate of 5.5%. We can conclude that Seoul households are ready to shoulder some of the financial burden of implementing the transformation.