Willingness to Pay for High Country Farm Tour

This research aims to provide motivations for participation from the consumer perspective in agricultural farm tours in the western portion of North Carolina. Results of a survey taken from participants in the High Country Farm Tour will be utilized to perform regression analysis to estimate the demand for the farm tour. By using data on stated preferences, we estimate consumer motivation of participation based on market development, social interaction and various pricing concepts. While much research has been completed on the motivation of farmers to commence tourism enterprises, relatively less research is available regarding consumer motivation in participation of such. Moreover, as motivation for participation will vary among participants, our research will determine the effects of changes in price of tickets and ticketing scheme on revenues. Thus, the hypothesis of the paper will be testing the effect of prices on participation using the linear probability model.