 Tourists' preferences for congestion, residents' welfare and the ecosystems in a national parkCarmelo J. León, Javier de León, Jorge E. Araña and Matías M. González Ecological Economics, 2015, vol. 118, issue C, 21-29 Abstract: The management of national parks and natural areas often faces a balance between the residents' welfare, the tourist activity and the pressure on ecosystems. This paper assesses the benefits for a set of policies designed to address tourist congestion, the increase in the welfare of the local populations, and the improvements in the ecosystem services (coral reefs, mangroves, dry forests, and coastal and sandy ecosystems). We utilize a discrete choice experiment approach with the consideration of potential heterogeneity. Results show that there are three segments of visitors with different preferences for the proposed policies. Those tourists with higher values for the environmental policies and welfare of the local communities also share a preference for a lower level of congestion at the natural areas. The results have implications for managing natural areas at tourist destinations. Keywords: Colombia; Discrete choice experiments; Ecosystem services; Heterogeneity; Number of tourists; Local communities; Tourists' preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:118:y:2015:i:c:p:21-29 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.07.003 Access Statistics for this article Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier |
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