Recreation Matters: Estimating Millennials’ Preferences for Native American Cultural Tourism

Ryan A. Fitch (), Julie Mueller, Rebecca Ruiz and Wade Rousse
Additional contact information
Ryan A. Fitch: W.A. Franke College of Business, Northern Arizona University, P.O. Box 15066, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, USA
Rebecca Ruiz: OMNI Institute, 899 Logan St., Suite 600, Denver, CO 80203, USA
Wade Rousse: Office of the President, McNeese State University, 4205 Ryan St., Lake Charles, LA 70605, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-11

Abstract: Millennials (persons born between 1981 and 1996) comprise a substantial and growing proportion of tourism consumers in the US. Rural economies, especially Native American communities, focused on casino revenue are faced with the challenge of sustainable economic growth in a millennial-dominant, post-COVID-19 pandemic economy. We estimate millennials’ willingness to pay for proposed cultural tourism scenarios using a discrete choice experiment on federally recognized tribal land in Arizona, US. We find strong preferences among millennials for guided recreational experiences, including horseback riding, hot spring visits, hiking, and cooking classes. With a changing demographic of potential visitors and a marked need to incorporate indigenous voices for the future of sustainable tourism, our results provide insight for future economic growth opportunities in cultural and natural resource tourism for Native American and rural communities.

Keywords: cultural recreation; millennials; discrete choice experiment; Bayesian estimation; Arizona, USA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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