Abstract: The travel cost model(TCM) has been widely used to estimate recreational value of tourist destinations.Place attachment is an important part of man-land relationship.Assessing the economic value of place attachment plays an important role in tourism planning and development.This article selected Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area as a case,based on 518 samples data collected from questionnaire investigation.Three conclusions can be drawn as follows.(1) The total recreational value of Jiuzhaigou scenic area is 9.116 billion yuan.The improved individual travel cost method(ITCM),which considered Chinese tourism traffic situation,reduced the measurement error from a simple travel cost method and was more effective on resource value assessment.(2) Through factor analysis and path analysis,we found place dependence and place identity were two dimensions of place attachment.Place dependence had positive effect on the place identity.Place dependence and place identity promoted tourists' demand in different degrees.Tourists' age and staying time had positive effect on place attachment.However,the education level of the visitors had negative impact on place attachment.(3) According to ITCM,we calculated the consumer surplus.Place attachment contributed 5.6% to overall recreational value of Jiuzhaigou's total,reflecting the economic promotion to scenic area from place attachment.

Key words: place attachment, ITCM, value assessment, consumer surplus, Jiuzhaigou