A Business Case for Marine Protected Areas: Economic Valuation of the Reef Attributes of Cozumel Island

Abstract

Tourism to Cozumel Island generates USD 762 million annually in local economic activity, and 111 visitors stay in local hotels for each inhabitant. The island’s coast is its principal attraction, yet water quality and reef health are threatened. This paper studies the link between the local economy and management of Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park, using a choice experiment to assess the economic value visitors assign to underwater visibility, biodiversity, and visitor congestion in reef areas. We found that, on average, tourists are willing to pay USD 190 per visit to avoid a projected decrease in biodiversity, USD 120 per visit to prevent a projected decline in visibility, and USD 98 to avoid high congestion during reef visits. We find high heterogeneity in willingness to pay estimates, which may be useful for targeting both conservation and marketing efforts. On the other hand, increasing the reef access fee from USD 2 to USD 6 could fully fund effective protected area management, with no substantial effect on visitors’ consumer surplus. Results suggest that a conservation surcharge could be added to all tours, with little impact on visitation, and that significantly increasing private sector collaboration and government spending on conservation would be good economic choices.

Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Service Benefits and Welfare Impacts of Offshore Marine Protected Areas: A Study from the Baltic Sea

“…Quantitative specifications of the attribute levels would be preferable to increase the content validity (see, for instance, Johnston et al (2012) [71]). At the same time, qualitative attribute levels can be found also in previous DCE studies related to the offshore and coastal MPAs [19,21,23,24,72]. More concrete scenarios for the expected changes in the habitat area and the resulting changes in the ES supply would allow formulating the DCE attributes in a more quantitative way, but such scenarios need to be underpinned with detailed and spatially explicit assessments of changes in the sea uses and their impact on the habitats.…”

Valoración económica del servicio ecosistémico de recreación del Área Natural Protegida Balandra, México

“…Los autores refieren que una gran parte de los turistas prefiere una mayor visibilidad a dos pies de profundidad con respecto a la alternativa de turbiedad. Lara-Pulido et al, (2021) estimaron la DAP por una mejora en la visibilidad del agua en playas con arrecifes de la Isla Cozumel, México. Los autores señalan que la mayoría de los turistas prefiere una alta visibilidad con respecto a las alternativas baja y media.…”

Analysis and global research trends on nautical tourism and green coastal infrastructures: the case of coral reefs and seagrass meadows

“…• On the other hand, the appearance of the keywords "marine tourism" and "governance" among the most current research trends points to an increase in research related to the consequences of touristic use of these green infrastructures, as well as the role played by the population in their conservation and management [10,14,35,41]. • Somewhat less novel, but also important, is research related to environmental services and the conservation of marine protected areas [19,35,38,45].…”