THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF NATIONAL PARKS AND PROTECTED AREAS AS TOURISM ATTRACTIONS

Abstract

This chapter considers national parks and other protected areas as tourism attractions, with examples from Australia. The focus in this chapter is on measures of economic value and impact based on expenditure by tourists. National parks are important tourist attractions in Australia—a recent national level study found that over one-fifth of all tourism expenditure was incurred by people who visited national parks as part of their trip. This chapter places the expenditure approach into the context of economic valuation methods and discusses the most appropriate ways to separate out the attraction effect of the national park from all tourism expenditure. A number of case studies conducted in Australia at regional and state levels are included to illustrate methodology and results. Managers of national parks and protected areas, government funding agencies, the tourist industry and regional communities are all interested in gaining an appreciation of the economic value of these areas in order to inform decisions on appropriate funding for management and presenting and promoting these areas for sustainable tourism.