Abstract
As a result of urbanization around the globe, the number of large cities with more than tenmillion people is on the rise. Noise, traffic congestion, soot, and air pollution generated in the urban environment are becoming the cause of urban stress. If recovering from stress becomes impossible for urban residents in an increasingly urbanized society, it is likely that they will suffer fromvarious health problems in the long term. Therefore, the value of urban forest is increasingly emphasized with respect tothe public health of urban residents. However, there are very few studies that evaluate the value of urban forestsconsidering both public health and the environment. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the economic value of urban forests which are used as daily leisure space from the viewpoint of tourism studies, focusing on their healing function associated with public health and environmental function. To this end, an onsite survey was conducted withKorea urban residents in Seoul, Korea. The study found thatwillingness-to-pay(WTP) was KRW31,681(US$26.77) per capita per year, and the total value was KRW628,477 million (US$528.13million) depending on mean WTP and truncated WTP.