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Willingness to Pay to Avoid High Encounter Levels at Dive Sites in the Caribbean
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This research estimates willingness to pay (WTP) to avoid high numbers of encounters with other divers at dive sites in barbados and Tobago. A survey of scuba divers from 2007 to 2010 examined demographics, experience, satisfaction with conditions (e.g., coral cover, visibility, diversity of fish and marine life, crowding), dive characteristics (e.g., divers encountered), and maximum WTP for the dive. WTP was a function of dive location, diver income, encounters, and amount paid for the dive. On average, divers may be willing to pay up to US$4.51 per additional diver to avoid encoun-ters with others. results can inform management regarding pricing and spatial planning of reef use and can aid in policies for maximizing economic returns from diving while reducing impacts of div-ing on reefs and diver experiences.
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... Some divers are willing to pay more to avoid high numbers of encounters with other divers. For instance, Schuhmann et al. (2013) found that divers might be willing to pay up to US $4.51 to avoid one diver at diving sites in Barbados and Tobago. On the other hand, some divers simply chose lesscrowded destinations to start with. ...
... In all, development of a systematic planning approach at Mabul Island that includes divers' crowding feeling is likely to improve existing diving tourism management. Finally, collecting fees from divers appears to be another feasible management response as shown in Schuhmann et al. (2013). However, more research is needed to confirm if divers would really honor their indicated willingness-toavoid crowding charges. ...
This study has explored social carrying capacity of an underwater environment based on divers' perceived crowding. Two dimensions were assessed, the number of divers seen and the proximity of diver. Data were obtained from a survey of 132 divers dived in Mabul Island, Malaysia during 2013-2014. Photographs depicting four levels of diver number and four levels of diver proximity in different combinations were shown to the respondents for assessing their acceptability. Between the two variables, the "number of divers" was the most influential factor for divers' perceived crowding. Divers would start to feel unacceptably crowded if 8-9 divers were visible to them at one time. Based on this, it is likely that the use level of diving sites in Mabul Island has already exceeded its social carrying capacity. Implications for future research and diving tourism management for Mabul Island are also discussed in the paper.
... Therefore, effective marine spatial planning, in conjunction with reducing land-based reef stressors, could increase diver satisfaction with fish life and low fishing activity/ gear encounters, improve overall reef health, allow for spill-over of commercially important species into fished areas (Halpern et al., 2010;Pittman et al., 2014) and potentially reduce conflicts between user groups (Ehler and Douvere, 2009;Tuda et al., 2014). Such management interventions should also be cognisant of the carrying capacity of each use zone, where for dive areas, factors such as diver damage to reefs and aversion to crowding must be considered for high-traffic locations (Schuhmann et al., 2013b;Tratalos and Austin, 2001). ...
... Given the basic principles of consumer demand, and that WTP values usually have outliers on the upper limits (e.g. Schuhmann et al., 2013b), it is unlikely that all respondents will be willing to pay the summary WTP values (Hargreaves-Allen, 2010). This was exemplified in Thur (2010) where mean WTP for an annual use fee within the diver population in Bonaire was estimated to be between US$64 and US$134, yet over 70% of divers had a maximum WTP of less than US$60. ...
... Studies also indicated that visitors view crowding as a reason for long waiting times, which, in turn, affect the accessibility of the destination or activity . Moreover, empirical evidence also shows that visitors or users who encounter higher crowding levels during the activity experience more disutility of place due to the decrease in resources (Kohlhardt et al., 2018;Schuhmann et al., 2013). Further, crowding has some negative influences on the image of destinations or attractions in visitors' minds (Jang et al., 2015;Trinh & Ryan, 2017). ...
This study presents a chronological review of methodological and empirical issues of the perceived crowding literature in the contexts of tourism and recreation. A content analysis was performed on 178 empirical articles gathered from online databases and published during the period of 2000–2019. The findings are presented in three sections – specifically, research scope, research methodology, and empirical issues consisting of antecedents and consequences of perceived crowding. The integrative review demonstrates that perceived crowding research is methodologically characterized by (1) a dominance of single-country setting studies mostly sampling visitors as opposed to other units of analysis and (2) an overwhelming number of quantitative studies with high response rates but a lack of sampling method reporting. Regarding the empirical issues, personal factors, external factors, and site-related factors are highly examined as antecedents of perceived crowding. In terms of crowding consequences, satisfaction-related consequences, and behavioural and affective responses constitute the main consequences discussed in the literature. The two substantial contributions of this article to the existing literature are as follows: (a) filling the gap in the relevant body of research with a comprehensive review of empirical articles on the subject and (b) providing theoretical and methodological guidelines for future research.
... The scuba divers were mostly male, middle aged and well-educated people, and skewed towards high experience and loyalty to the study areas. This profile partly reflects that of divers described in similar research carried out at both tropical [18,21,25,28,52,[62][63][64][65][66] and non-tropical diving destinations [10,[12][13]16,20,22,[29][30]53,[67][68][69][70], making it possible to generalise some of the implications of this study to different diving destinations. The structure of the sample is still notably comparable between the study areas, and also longitudinally to the characteristics of the diving population of each study area according to previous literature. ...
Scuba diving experience-which can include accumulated diving experience and familiarity with a diving location-is an important descriptor of diver specialisation and behaviour. Formulating and applying generalisations on scuba diving experience and its effects could assist the management of diving destinations around the world. This requires research that tests whether the influences of scuba diving experience are consistent across divers' segments at different locations. The study assessed and compared the influence of scuba diving experience at two study areas in Italy and Mozambique. Scuba divers (N = 499) participated in a survey of diver segmentation, experience, and perceptions. The influence of diving experience on perceptions was determined using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Experienced divers provided positive self-assessments, were less satisfied with dive sites' health and management, and viewed the impacts of scuba diving activities less critically than novice divers. Scuba diving experience exerted similar influences on divers, regardless of the study area. However, remarkable differences also emerged between the study areas. Therefore, the use of generalisations on scuba diving experience remains a delicate issue. Recommendations were formulated for the management of experienced scuba diving markets and for the use of generalisations on diving experience to manage diving destinations.
... Os praticantes dessa atividade preferem que apenas seus próprios grupos de colegas estejam no local visitado, fato que oferece uma maior sensação de proximidade com a natureza. Schuhmann et al. (2013) estimam que os mergulhadores em Barbados e em Tobago estariam dispostos a pagar cerca US$ 4,51 para evitar encontros debaixo da água com outros grupos de mergulhadores. Vaske et al. (2013) estimam que o encontro com mais de 25 pessoas no ponto de mergulho é inaceitável por parte dos mergulhadores. ...
Atualmente, milhões de indivíduos praticam o mergulho autônomo recreativo em busca de prazer na observação e interação com a flora, fauna, geologia e arqueologia submarinas. A prática do mergulho autônomo motiva inúmeras viagens com pernoite fora do entorno habitual do mergulhador, dando origem ao chamado turismo de mergulho (autônomo). Esse segmento da atividade turística tem crescido substancialmente, oferecendo oportunidades e ameaças relevantes para empresas e destinos turísticos. Portanto, entender o comportamento de viagens dos turistas do segmento de mergulho autônomo pode contribuir para o desenvolvimento social e econômico, favorecendo também a preservação ambiental. O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar o comportamento de viagem do turista de mergulho brasileiro. A análise, de abordagem quantitativa, foi feita a partir de questionários aplicados a 171 mergulhadores do país. Com base nesses dados e na revisão bibliográfica realizada, este trabalho traz sugestões para o aproveitamento do potencial turístico de destinos com vistas a otimizar os benefícios oferecidos pela atividade.
... As in many other outdoor activities, scuba divers organize into organizations and clubs (Schuhmann et al., 2013). At Sipadan, however, only a small group of scuba divers are members of diving clubs and we find no statistically significant difference between the WTP of members of diving clubs and the general population of divers. ...
The protected coral reefs off the coast of Malaysia receive numerous tourists, while also being as fishing grounds. These joint environmental pressures raise the need for additional costly conservation measures. It is natural to consider the potential for expanding the 'user pays' principle, already implemented in the form of various user fees. This study explores the potential for price discrimination among scuba divers at Sipadan in Malaysia. The study applies a choice experiment to estimate scuba divers willingness to pay higher user fees for avoiding decreases of or getting improvements in environmental and recreational aspects of the diving experience. We investigate how sensitivity to fee size and hence willingness to pay vary with suitable selected characteristics of divers. We find potentials for a third degree price discrimination strategy exploiting higher willingness to pay among foreign divers (45%), male divers (16%) and people who has visited Sipadan several times (25%). Thus, revised pricing structures could significantly increase funds for the preservation of Sipadan.
... In order to provide high quality diving experiences with low environmental impact, access should be limited to small scale, ecotourism operators. Previous research on user profiles has recommended to preserve specialist markets where these exist, being a higher yielding and more distinctive niche with lower environmental impacts [23,59,60]. ...
... Needham (2013) found crowding and encounters as important indicators at six coastal and marine sites on the island of Oahu, Hawai'i and the author suggested that all three concepts (i.e., encounters, norms and crowding) should be measured when addressing social carrying capacity issues. Schuhmann et al. (2013) estimated the willingness to pay to avoid high numbers of encounters with other divers in Barbados and Tobago. It was showed that divers might be willing to pay up to US $4.51 to avoid one diver. ...
Recently, fisheries managers have been faced with high uncertainty about Atlantic goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) stock status, especially due to the lack of fishery-dependent data since the harvest moratorium in 1990. Regardless of this uncertainty, the angling community has been pressuring fishery managers to open the goliath grouper to recreational take, while the diving community has been pressuring managers to keep the fishery closed due to the touted ecotourism value of the spawning aggregations. A previous study estimated that resident anglers in Florida who wanted the fishery open were willing to pay between US$34 and US$79 to harvest a goliath grouper. Using a survey instrument with choice experiments, the present study estimated that divers (n = 1537) off eastern Florida would be willing to pay approximately US$103 for a dive trip with one goliath grouper encounter during the months of their spawning aggregation (August–October), and US$202 if there are 40 goliath grouper (such as is common on a many spawning aggregation sites). Results suggested that divers coming from outside of Florida were willing to pay higher rates for dive trips with goliath grouper encounters; and at spawning aggregations sites, willingness to pay was estimated around US$336 for these non-Florida divers. Based on life-history traits of goliath grouper and the high value of their spawning aggregation sites, we suggest any changes in goliath grouper policy that would negatively impact spawning aggregation numbers be made with caution.
Marine parks are increasingly being established to protect endangered marine ecosystems and the biological diversity that they support. Trade-offs exist between protection and use, and ways must be found to produce economic benefits from marine areas while still yielding protection benefits, a question of particular importance to poorer countries that can ill afford to forego development benefits by enforcing strict protection measures. This paper examines these issues in the context of Caribbean marine parks. A number of countries that have established marine protected areas also rely on ocean-based tourism as an important, sometimes central, component of their economy. Can protection and direct use be compatible? Bonaire Marine Park is examined in some detail and monetary estimates are presented. Initial results indicate that proper management can yield both protection and development benefits but questions of ecosystem carrying capacity and national retention of revenues raise important issues for longer term sustainability. -Authors
Microeconomic theory is used to consider issues related to setting a price for the use of publicly provided outdoor recreation. The necessary conditions for pricing recreation to achieve economic efficiency are that the marginal cost of recreation use be greater than zero and the costs of charging fees not be excessive. Marginal costs arise from three sources: overcrowding, ecological damage, and operating expenses. Limiting recreation use by pricing is more economically efficient than other rationing schemes.-from Authors
you can download the pub from the website - https://www.wri.org/publication/reefs-risk-caribbean
Since many fisheries are size-selective, the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) is expected to increase both the average size and abundance of exploited species, such as the valuable but vulnerable Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus). Increases in mean size and/or abundance of protected species within MPAs may also provide nonextractive economic value to recreationalists. In this research, we assessed scuba diver preferences for viewing Nassau grouper and the marginal tradeoffs that divers exhibited between fish size and abundance and between dive group size and price in the Turks and Caicos Islands. We used results from a paired comparison conjoint survey to develop market share simulations of dive site choice. Market shares increased significantly for sites with increased Nassau grouper abundance and mean size. This implies that Nassau groupers provide nonextractive economic value to divers. Our results suggest that accounting for the nonextractive value of increased fish abundance and size may influence the economic viability of MPAs.
A study of reef attributes and scuba diver behavior in Roatán, Honduras, shows that marine environmental quality, measured as percent live coral cover, is a significant predictor of dive site visitation. Regression analysis shows that the reef quality is an economic “good”; while transit time from the resort to the dive site is an economic “bad. “ The regression results support a simple utility maximization model that demonstrates how coral reef degradation can reduce diver welfare and harm local economies.
Economists have tried to estimate the demand for recreation under conditions of congestion, struggling especially with a model that uses observed rather than stated behaviour to obtain results. This paper reports statistical analyses of data on perceptions, mitigating behaviour and management preferences in order to highlight the difficulties related to empirical analysis of congestion. We offer evidence that may be of assistance to those wishing to construct measures of congestion for use in an observed behaviour model. The results may also be useful to recreation area managers who can implement a quota or permit system or change site entry or access fees to control access to the site they manage.