This study aims to identify the characteristics of mountainaineers and factors that influence the level of tourist visits to Talang mountain. Calculating the economic value of Talang mountain with the travel cost method (TCM) and finding out the land cover changes due to the climbing activities of Talang mountain and the economic value of Talang mountain after being corrected with the land cover changes. The research method used in the survey method uses questionnaires and direct interviews with 100 samples. Changes in the area land cover observed were climbing routes, camping ground and mountainain top using the Geographic Information System (GIS) method with Arcgis software the data source used was USGS Lansat 8 2013 until 2017. The results of the research on the characteristics of visitors of Talang mountain belong to the category young people are mostly male and have student and student status with a relatively low income level, where visitors come from the field from 12 urban districts in West Sumatra and 3 Provinces outside West Sumatra. There are 8 factors that influence the number of visits to Talang mountain climbing tours, namely travel costs, income, education, age, number of dependents, gender, time spent on one visit to a tourist location and long time knowing Gunung Talang. The economic value of climbing Talang mountain is Rp. 4,166,496,238 – obtained from the calculation of visitor travel costs in 2017. There was a change in land cover for climbing routes. The economic value of Talang mountain after being corrected with changes in land cover, there is a depreciation of 36,963.64 / Ha / per year.

Keywords : Economic valuation, travel cost, land cover changes.