The Economic Impacts of Ecotourism

By Kreg Lindberg, PhD Lecturer, Charles Sturt University 3 November 1996

There are two related, but distinct, economic concepts in ecotourism: economic impact and economic value. This issues paper focusses on economic impact, which refers to the change in sales, income, jobs, or other parameter generated by ecotourism. A common ecotourism goal is the generation of economic benefits, whether they be profits for companies, jobs for communities, or revenues for parks. Ecotourism plays a particularly important role because it can create jobs in remote regions that historically have benefited less from economic development programs than have more populous areas. Even a small number of jobs may be significant in communities where populations are low and alternatives are few.

This economic impact can increase political and financial support for conservation. Protected areas, and nature conservation generally, provide many benefits to society, including preservation of biodiversity, maintenance of watersheds, and so on. Unfortunately, many of these benefits are intangible. However, the benefits associated with recreation and tourism in protected areas tend to be tangible. For example, divers at a marine park spend money on lodging, food, and other goods and services, thereby providing employment for local and non-local residents. These positive economic impacts can lead to increased support for the protected areas with which they are associated. This is one reason why ecotourism has been embraced as a means for enhancing conservation of natural resources.

Several studies in Australia and elsewhere have assessed the economic impacts of ecotourism. Predictably, the level of benefits varies widely as a result of differences in the quality of the attraction, access, and so on. In some cases, the number of jobs created will be low, but in rural areas even a few jobs can make a big difference. Still, ecotourism benefits should not be oversold, or there may be a backlash as reality fails to live up to expectations.

The impacts of ecotourism, or any economic activity, can be grouped into three categories: direct, indirect, and induced. Direct impacts are those arising from the initial tourism spending, such as money spent at a restaurant. The restaurant buys goods and services (inputs) from other businesses, thereby generating indirect impacts. In addition, the restaurant employees spend part of their wages to buy various goods and services, thereby generating induced impacts. Of course, if the restaurant purchases the goods and services from outside the region of interest, then the money provides no indirect impact to the region -- it leaks away. Figure 1 illustrates some of these impacts and leakages.

By identifying the leakages, or conversely the linkages within the economy, the indirect and induced impacts of tourism can be estimated. In addition, this information can be used to identify what goods are needed but are not being produced in the region, how much demand there is for such goods, and what the likely benefits of local production would be. This enables policy makers to determine priorities for developing inputs for use by the tourism or other industries.

How, then, are these direct, indirect, and induced impacts to be estimated? For small areas with non-diverse economies, there are relatively few indirect and induced impacts, and there are relatively little data available for modeling these impacts. Therefore, surveys of visitors, residents, and/or businesses often are used to identify tourism's direct impacts. For larger areas, such as states or countries, economists have developed various techniques for estimating indirect and induced impacts, including computable general equilibrium (CGE) and input-output (IO) analysis.

Examples

Spending per visitor can be increased through, for example, provision of handicrafts where such provision currently does not exist. In some cases, there may also be prospects for attracting higher-spending visitors. Backward linkages can be increased through greater use of local agricultural and other products. In order to increase backward linkages and local participation in the industry, it may be necessary to implement or expand capital availability and training programs. Economic impact analysis can provide valuable information when evaluating the costs and benefits of such programs.

For more information and examples

In an article for the Australian Journal of Environmental Management (volume 2, number 1, pages 19-29), Sally Driml and Mick Common provide data on visitor expenditure (direct impacts) and user fees collected at five World Heritage Areas.

In their report for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (Regional Economic Impact: Gibraltar Range and Dorrigo National Parks, 1995, available for $10 from NSW NPWS (02) 585 6333), Roy Powell and Linden Chalmers use input-output analysis to estimate the economic impacts of ecotourism at these national parks.

In their report for WWF (US) (An Analysis of Ecotourism's Economic Contribution to Conservation and Development in Belize, 1994), Kreg Lindberg and Jerry Enriquez use resident surveys to estimate local economic impacts and input-output analysis to estimate national economic impacts of tourism.

In a presentation at the 1996 Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference ("Kate Fischer or Liz Hurley, Which Model Should I Use?"), Trevor Mules discusses various economic impact models. The proceedings are published by the Bureau of Tourism Research (06) 279 7264.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes Information Paper, Australian National Accounts, Introduction to Input-Output Multipliers, Catalogue No. 5246.0, Fax (06) 252 5380.

If you have comments on this issues paper or want to add a relevant reference, please contact Kreg Lindberg