Economic valuation of environmental resources and sustainable development in the Caribbean region: A case of study of tourist preferences in the area of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

摘要

In the Caribbean region, tourism represents one of the most important means for stimulating economic growth, improving trade balances, and managing environmental resources. But tourism also has costs. Tourism's major environmental impacts in this region are especially linked to the construction and operation of facilities. For example, between 80–90 percent of inadequately treated sewage is disposed of in coastal waters. The maintenance of market competitiveness of tourism destinations requires developing a balance between growth goals and long term environmental protection. Sustainable development (SD) may be a way to achieve such of balance. Assessing the economic value of both the benefits and the negative impacts of tourism will facilitate the SD goal. In this study, the Multi-Attribute Choice (MAC) and the Open Ended Contingent Valuation (OE) methods were used to value the economic benefits of recreational and environmental improvements in the tourist area of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. The main goals of this study were to: (1) undertake a comparison of these methodologies, (2) obtain policy-useful information for the sustainable use of environmental resources of this area, and (3) illustrate the importance of economic valuation in the development and evaluation of environmental policy and SD. Five plans, including status quo, were evaluated by interviewing tourists as they were about to leave the area for home. These were: (1) status quo, (2) botanical garden, (3) biodiversity museum, (4) outdoor aquarium, and (5) water management. The survey results indicate that the outdoor aquarium and water management were the most preferred of the five options. This interest was expressed both in qualitative and monetary terms. Also, respondents show high interest in a local endangered species garden. When comparing the willingness to pay (WTP) values yielded by the two methods, the results confirm other findings that WTP values are susceptible to the elicitation method used. For Option 4, the WTP obtained with the MAC method exceeds the values obtained with the OE method by a factor of 3.8. This factor was used as a calibration factor in order to increase construct validity of MAC WTP.