Valuation of Tourism to Protected Marine Environments

Abstract

The increasing impacts of climate change on our most vulnerable protected areas has brought into focus the need for a better understanding of human–environment interactions. While it is established that visitation and place attachment can lead to conservation, the literature calls for further research into the valuation of tourism to protected marine environments, which manifest through emotional stability and environmental worldviews, how these differ across key visitor groups. Such an understanding will assist with creating support among global markets to better protect our most vulnerable environmental visitor assets. Through a survey of Australia's key visitor markets (n = 1,225), using the iconic Great Barrier Reef (GBR) as the vulnerable protected marine environment in question, this research establishes a clear positive relationship between emotional stability and environmental worldview and the greater valuation of the GBR. Moreover, the results reveal differences in social resilience and protected area valuation across the different markets, as well as between previous and potential visitors to the GBR.