Tourists’ Willingness to Pay Increased Entrance Fees at Mexican Protected Areas: A Multi-Site Contingent Valuation Study

Abstract

It can be challenging to set protected area entrance fees without information on how much visitors are willing to pay. It is particularly difficult for agencies managing multiple sites to set fees without conducting surveys at each location. In order to examine how willingness to pay estimates would vary across sites with distinctive profiles, 877 visitors at five Mexican protected sites (Calakmul, Cobá, Palenque, Sian Ka’an, and Yum Balam) were interviewed through double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation surveys. The results suggest that visitors would be willing to pay higher entrance fees, with mean maximum willingness to pay estimates of 2.8–9.8 times current fees, ranging from US$15.70 to US$25.83. Visitor demand was found to be relatively inelastic, with aggregate fee rises of 26% estimated to result in a 5% decrease in visitation. These results suggest that there is room to raise revenues through moderate fee increases without a concomitant drop-off in visitation.

Estimating visitors' willingness to pay for a conservation fund: sustainable financing approach in protected areas in Ethiopia

“…The result also shows that younger people are found to be more WTP to provide economic support for nature conservation. This result is consistent with the findings by Platania and Rizzo (2018) and Witt (2019) but inconsistent with the findings by Opacak and Wang (2019) and Pedroso and Kungu (2019). Gender and household size had no significant effect on WTP.…”

“…Although education was not significant in the model, the positive coefficient shows that WTP was positively influenced by education, which implies that increasing the number of years studying would increase the likelihood of visitors' WTP. The same result was also revealed in the studies by Witt (2019) and Pedroso and Kungu (2019). Education and awareness has a positive consequence on personal maturity and will help to increase one's knowledge and could ultimately have an impact on the positive environmental thinking of a person (see Opacak and Wang, 2019;Rodella et al, 2019;Lundberg et al, 2019).…”

“…(2015) estimated a mean WTP value of $1.6 for domestic and $3.2 for foreign visitors for the entry fee to access the National Elephant Conservation Center in Malaysia. Through the application of a double-bounded dichotomous-CV survey, Witt (2019) has estimated a mean WTP of tourists ranging from $15.7 to $25.83 for an increased entry fee for the case of Mexican PAs. Lee et al.…”

“…In this regard, the valuation of non-market environmental values has been a major research topic in environmental economics ( Hanemann, 1989 , 2001 ). Particularly, the WTP approach is widely applicable in developing fair and equitable users' fees to access the PAs ( Witt, 2019 ).…”

Evaluating the Effects of a Minimalist Deliberative Framework on the Willingness to Participate in a Payment for Ecosystem Services Program

“…On the weaknesses side, the minimalist deliberation had an overall sample size of 192, which places it on the higher end for deliberative valuation, and somewhat closer to the sample sizes expected from traditional stated preference surveys. With regards to cost, the deliberation was only around twice as expensive per participant as Witt (2019)'s contingent valuation study in the same geographic area, which compares favorably to the estimate of 3 to 7 times more expensive per participant estimated by Balderas Torres et al (2013) [18,95]. The limited time cost experienced by participants may have led to broader participation, as is seen with the largely representative sample.…”