Opportunities and limitations of contingent valuation surveys to determine national park entrance fees: evidence from Costa Rica

Abstract

A contingent valuation method (CVM) survey to determine foreign and resident willingness to pay (WTP) for return visits to two different Costa Rican national parks was administered in 1995. WTP values were estimated for future entrance fees associated with proposed improvements to infrastructure and services in the Poas Volcano and the Manuel Antonio parks. Resulting logistic CVM models were statistically robust and mean WTP for entrance fees differed among the parks and were considerably higher than current fees. Results indicate that even in a developing country setting, the CVM is a useful tool to help determine park entrance fees in spite of the following methodological limitations which are recommended for further study: the need to include potential park visitors in survey samples; the lack of detailed information framing and contingent scenarios for park related WTP questions; and the threat of cultural-strategic biases when surveying residents of a developing country.

Economic benefits of biodiversity exceed costs of conservation at an African rainforest reserve

“…In contrast, international tourists and foreign residents of Uganda are currently charged Ͻ$5.00 to visit the Mabira Forest Reserve. This dramatic undervaluation of the willingness to pay of tourist visitors is consistent with results from other tropical areas (18,19) and suggests much room for improvement in entrance fee policy. Increasing entrance fees would not only provide greater amounts of revenue for protected area management, but also by concomitantly reducing tourist numbers, it may help alleviate some of the negative ecological and cultural effects of international tourism (20,21).…”

The use of choice experiments in the analysis of tourist preferences for ecotourism development in Costa Rica

“…During 1999, entrance fees for all national parks in Costa Rica were $6Á00 for foreign tourists and approximately $1Á25 for nationals, residents, and Central Americans. However, contingent valuation estimates of willingness to pay of Costa Rican and foreign tourists for park entrance, with some improvements to the parks, are considerably greater than the current fees (Schultz et al, 1998).…”

“…Based on pressure from both the environmental community and ®scal authorities, entrance fees for foreign tourists were raised to $15 (Chase et al, 1998). This change in fees was not based on objective economic analysis (Schultz et al, 1998). However, exceptions were made so that entrance fees purchased through tour operators were $5 and fees purchased in advance were $10.…”

Estimating the Economic Value of Landscape Losses Due to Flooding by Hydropower Plants in the Chilean Patagonia

“…Even though there are applications of contingent valuation for developing countries in general (Weldesilassie et al 2009;Minhaj 2009;Brouwer et al 2009;Hammitt and Zhou 2006;Baral et al 2008;Kohlin 2001), and for Latin America in particular (Adams et al 2008;Ojeda et al 2008;Casey et al 2006;Barton 2002;Shultz et al 1998), the mainstream research is still focused on developed countries (for a wide coverage of literature on contingent valuation see Carson 2007). With this in mind, we provide some evidence on the relationship between hydropower construction and landscape loss, and we shed some light on the magnitude of the economic value of this loss.…”