Sally Driml

Economic and Financial Benefits of Tourism in Major Protected Areas

Tourism has emerged as an important economic activity in Australia. Australias protected natural environment areas are amongst the nations major tourist attractions. This article presents new estimates of the considerable financial value of tourism in five of Australias World Heritage Areas (WHAs). An economic interpretation of the management objectives for protected areas has been developed to illustrate the nature of the problem of maximising the combined benefits of all uses, including conservation, over time. The role of tourism and the proper measures of economic benefits are defined within this model. The model also incorporates expenditure on management to prevent reductions in environmental quality. The financial value estimates for the five WHAs are compared with management budgets and revenue collected from users and this leads to questions about the adequacy of funding for management and the potential for raising more revenue for management from users. It is argued that these questions can o...

Ecological Economics Criteria for Sustainable Tourism: Application to the Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics World Heritage Areas, Australia

The paper examines the extent to which tourism in the Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics World Heritage Areas can be said to be sustainable. To do this it provides a definition of sustainable tourism for protected areas, in terms of ecological economics criteria. Tourism, and its management, in the two World Heritage Areas is described, and the outcomes are assessed against the definition of sustainable tourism. The available data is not sufficient to permit a definitive overall assessment. However, a favourable interim verdict appears justified against environmental criteria in the case of the Great Barrier Reef. There is in both cases a dearth of suitable data for proper assessment against economic criteria. The criteria proposed and the assessment exercise reported provide a contribution to developing ways to evaluate sustainable tourism.

Bringing ecological economics out of the wilderness

Abstract This paper provides a brief look at the state of the art of use of economics in the designation and management of protected areas in Australia. To date, the formal use of economic analysis in making decisions concerning protected areas has been limited and ad hoc. This is illustrated for two of Australias premier protected areas, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. It is argued that economic analysis can play a part in making policy on allocation of land to protected areas, and in the management of such areas. Based on experience to date, suggestions are offered for the future use of ecological economics in allocating and managing protected areas.

Travel Cost Analysis of Recreation Value in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area

Travel cost analysis for Australian tourists to the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area was undertaken in order to derive a consumer surplus value for use in examining benefits of sustainable tourism to the area. Randalls contention that travel cost analysis produces relative rather than absolute values of welfare was tested by using several different versions of travel cost specification, and found to be supported. Nevertheless, the analysis produced values of a magnitude that indicate high positive benefits from visitor use to the World Heritage Area, provided the area is managed to be ecologically sustainable.

How Long Does an Economic Impact Last? Tracking the Impact of a New Giant Panda Attraction at an Australian Zoo:

A concerning issue with Economic Impact Analysis (EIA) is that many EIAs give results for one year, without being explicit about how long impacts are expected to last. New tourism attractions should not be assumed to provide continuing positive impacts into the future. For instance, the Giant Pandas at Adelaide Zoo generated a positive economic impact in their first year of residence (22% of a sample of tourists visited Adelaide “due to pandas,” additional tourism expenditure in the region was

The economic value of national parks and protected areas as tourism attractions

27.7 million, with

Impediments to tourism investment in Australia: a scoping study

2.3 to

Managing seasonality in rural destinations: a case study of South Gippsland – Australia

4.6 million captured by the zoo); however, increased numbers visiting to see the pandas lasted only two years. Investment decision makers expected larger, longer-term economic benefits than eventuated, and the zoo experienced financial difficulties. This study provides advice for predictive EIA of new tourism attractions and prompts a call for tourism EIA studies to be explicit about the time period for which results are relevant.

Is the Airline Trustworthy? The Impact of Source Credibility on Voluntary Carbon Offsetting:

Public economics covers both topics in welfare economic of social (as opposed to private) interest and aspects of public finance. This chapter considers the application of two methods of social economic evaluation of tourist developments, namely, social cost-benefit analysis and economic impact analysis. The role of social cost-benefit analysis in the assessment of tourism is illustrated by its application to the evaluation of inbound tourism. This is followed by a discussion of taxes on tourism and subsidies to promote it. The principle focus is on hotel room taxes. The analysis of taxes on tourism involves both public finance and welfare economics issues. The scope for and desirability of applying the user-pays principle to tourism is then examined.Handbook of Tourism Economics: Analysis, New Applications and Case Studies provides an up-to-date, concise and readable coverage of the most important topics in tourism economics. It pays attention to relevant traditional topics in tourism economics as well as exciting emerging topics in this field ia topics which are expected to be of continuing importance. In doing this, it takes account of advances in economic thought, analysis and applied methods. Contributions provide applications of economic analysis to tourism policy and constructive assessment of contemporary thought about tourism economics. The handbook includes several in-depth case studies such as the contribution of tourism to economic development in selected countries including China, India, Japan and Australia, Portugal and Fiji. Coming from diverse countries (both industrialised and developing) and established in the field of tourism economics, travel and management, many of the contributors have been consultants to governments, private organisations, and international bodies, including the UN World Tourism Organisation, the OECD and UNEP. Experts contributing to this volume include the President of the International Association of Tourism Economics, as well as its Secretary-General, the Secretary-General of the Tourism Research Centre (Association of Tourism Research Institutes), the Founder-Fellow of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism and the former Director of the UKs Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE).This chapter provides an overview of the contributions to this handbook and this is accompanied by some editorial observations. The range of these contributions is wide. They cover the demand for tourism, the supply of tourist services and include studies of particular segments of the tourist industry. Attention is also given to the application of cost-benefit analysis and public economics to tourism economics as well as to the importance of inter-industry analysis and tourism statellite accounts in assessing the economic consequences of tourism. International economic aspects of tourism are analysed as well as tourism’s role in economic development. The interconnection between tourism, conservation and the state of the environment is emphasised.

A method for estimating the state-wide economic significance of national park tourism: The case of Queensland

This article reports on a scoping study identifying the impediments to tourism investment in Australia. It focuses on regional perspectives to present an understanding of tourism investment in metropolitan, regional, and remote tourism destinations. Despite the 2009 Jackson Report outlining several supply-side inhibitors to tourism development in Australia, the key impediments for tourism investment are not well covered in the tourism literature and are rarely brought together in an integrated manner. To identify these investment impediments, a case study approach, employing semistructured interviews with tourism industry and government representatives in several metropolitan, regional, and remote locations throughout Australia, was conducted in early 2010. Low profitability and variable demand were frequently nominated as the most significant impediments to investment by the majority of the interviewees. However, each location has its own unique circumstances and impediments to investment, underpinned by the type of economic development of the region, local planning controls and regulations, as well as issues particular to tourism such as location and natural and/or cultural attractions. A number of recommendations are formulated based on the findings from the case studies that emphasize the identification, monitoring, and publicizing of facilitators of investment and strategies to overcome impediments.