#XmasCryptoMiracles

The paper aims at estimating the economic use value, primarily recreational, of a particular outdoor recreation activity, the Christmas market in Meran, Italy. Valuations based on revealed preferences are derived from the prices paid for goods or services. To infer the value derived from the direct use or interaction with cultural services for recreation purposes, we apply a travel cost model (TCM), which has been used to value non-market goods and outdoor events (Armbrecht, 2014, Bedate et al., 2004, Poor and Smith, 2004). A misspecification arises if individuals’ trips consist of different trip purposes. In case of ignoring this misspecification bias may occur. This is why the study includes visitors whose aim is to visit the Meran Christmas market and focuses on estimating the economic value of the event in terms of consumer surplus. The novelty of the study is the attempt to estimate the economic or social value (consumer surplus) of the Christmas market as distinct from the economic impact that is a change in expenditure that could be assessed via other methodologies (e.g., input–output analysis).

In Section 2, we discuss previous studies on Christmas markets, and in Section 3, we provide an overview of the travel cost method. In Section 4, we describe the Meran Christmas market and the survey methodology and present key socio-demographic characteristics of respondents. In Section 5, we provide additional details about the modeling process and focus on the important role that authenticity plays, as highlighted in the literature, in the decision to attend the Christmas market. In Section 6, we present the results and the computation of the consumer surpluses. Finally, in Section 7, we conclude.