Andrew Seidl

COMBINING NON-MARKET VALUATION AND INPUT–OUTPUT ANALYSIS FOR COMMUNITY TOURISM PLANNING: OPEN SPACE AND WATER QUALITY VALUES IN COLORADO, USA

We use a combination of non-market valuation and input–output approaches to inform community scale planning for natural-resource based tourism development in rural Colorado. Contingent behavior and trip expenditure information are used in conjunction with IMPLAN input–output software to simulate the likely regional economic effects of changes in local environmental attributes. Visitor surveys reveal sensitivity to the amount of ranch open space and local water quality resulting in discernable regional economic effects should these valuable dimensions of the local environment change. The likely total, direct, indirect, and induced effects and implications on local residents and tourists of a sales tax, mill levy, and hotel occupancy (‘bed’) tax to preserve ranch open space and maintain local water quality are simulated. The losses offset from maintaining environmental quality are found to significantly outweigh the regional impacts of any of the tax policies.

Is Resident Valuation of Ranch Open Space Robust in a Growing Rural Community? Evidence From the Rocky Mountains

The conversion of ranch open space to development uses is common in rural areas experiencing rapid growth, often due to in-migration. There is concern that a growing and changing population could alter community preferences regarding development, permanently changing the physical and social landscape. This study investigates the nonmarket value of ranch open space to residents of an amenity-rich county in the Rocky Mountains (USA) using survey data from 1994 and 2004. We find that on that, on average, there was no difference in what residents were willing to pay for ranch open space conservation between the two years, and that income has a positive effect on willingness to pay. Because the population of the county is growing and average willingness to pay has stayed constant, aggregate willingness to pay for public ranch open space has increased, leading to greater total social benefits of public conservation initiatives.

Conservation finance and sustainable tourism: the acceptability of conservation fees to support the Tambopata National Reserve, Peru

ABSTRACT Protected areas are key to the conservation of global biodiversity and ecosystem services; however, their success is contingent upon adequate funding. One possibility to increase funding for park management is to “sell” a wider suite of ecosystem services “produced” by protected areas, such as carbon sequestration. We conducted 420 tourist surveys to analyze willingness to pay (WTP) for ecosystem service benefits via a conservation fee in the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru. We also interviewed eight tour operators about their perceptions of the proposed fee. The average stated WTP was 15 USD. Sixty-six percent of tourists stated they would pay 10 USD or more, which, if actually paid, would have resulted in 318,000 USD for park management in 2015. Most respondents stated they would pay an additional fee if it supported biodiversity conservation or local ecosystem services, such as water, but less than 10% of tourists were motivated by carbon sequestration as a reason to pay the fee. Most tour operators supported the additional fee. Our findings suggest that tourists are willing to pay higher fees to support conservation but that interest in paying for additional ecosystem services from parks may not extend to global and intangible benefits such as carbon sequestration.