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[2E205] Willingness to Pay of Tourists for Environmental Conservation: A Case of Ecotourism Sites in Laguna, Philippines
Keywords:Willingness to pay, Tourism, Environmental conservation, Environmental knowledge, Pro-environmental habits
At the nature-based tourist destinations, how to manage the environment with a growing number of tourists after the removal of COVID-19 restrictions is a major concern. Environmental management is important for both the well-being of the communities in the destinations and tourism competitiveness.
This study aims to investigate the tourists’ willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental conservation in the nature-based tourist destinations and to identify the determinants. Following the emergent issue of waste management in those communities (Alinsunurin&Shinkai, 2023), we went one step further to explore the tourists’ attitudes toward waste segregation during travels. We conducted a survey of 251 tourists in August 2023 and March 2024 in the popular nature-based tourist destinations in Laguna, Philippines and asked about the WTP for environmental conservation and waste management during their travels, among others. Similar to the findings of previous studies on tourists’ WTP (Bhandari & Heshmati, 2010; Kostakisa & Sardianou, 2012), higher travel cost and longer stay led to higher WTP. Environmental knowledge also played a significant role in our tourists’ WTP as found previously (Nelson, Partelow, Stäbler, Graci, & Fujitani, 2021). However, our results did not show any significant effects of demographic variables, such as gender, age, and educational attainment. We also examined the effect of tourists’ pro-environmental habits on WTP and attitudes on waste management during travels, by incorporating two habit variables in our analyses. One of these pro-environmental habits led to higher WTP and another habit mattered significantly for the acceptability of waste management during travels. Although the average tourists’ WTP was 8.9 USD per visit, about 8.8% of tourists preferred no fee. In conclusion, raising environmental awareness and encouraging pro-environmental habits may be helpful for environmental management at the nature-based tourist destinations. We applied the Tobit regression model and multinominal logit model for the analyses.(298words)
This study aims to investigate the tourists’ willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental conservation in the nature-based tourist destinations and to identify the determinants. Following the emergent issue of waste management in those communities (Alinsunurin&Shinkai, 2023), we went one step further to explore the tourists’ attitudes toward waste segregation during travels. We conducted a survey of 251 tourists in August 2023 and March 2024 in the popular nature-based tourist destinations in Laguna, Philippines and asked about the WTP for environmental conservation and waste management during their travels, among others. Similar to the findings of previous studies on tourists’ WTP (Bhandari & Heshmati, 2010; Kostakisa & Sardianou, 2012), higher travel cost and longer stay led to higher WTP. Environmental knowledge also played a significant role in our tourists’ WTP as found previously (Nelson, Partelow, Stäbler, Graci, & Fujitani, 2021). However, our results did not show any significant effects of demographic variables, such as gender, age, and educational attainment. We also examined the effect of tourists’ pro-environmental habits on WTP and attitudes on waste management during travels, by incorporating two habit variables in our analyses. One of these pro-environmental habits led to higher WTP and another habit mattered significantly for the acceptability of waste management during travels. Although the average tourists’ WTP was 8.9 USD per visit, about 8.8% of tourists preferred no fee. In conclusion, raising environmental awareness and encouraging pro-environmental habits may be helpful for environmental management at the nature-based tourist destinations. We applied the Tobit regression model and multinominal logit model for the analyses.(298words)
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