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on Tourism Economics |
| By: | David Fielding; Anja Shortland |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a detailed database of political violence in Egypt to study European and US tourists' attitudes towards travelling to a conflict region. We use time series analysis to study the heterogeneous impacts of different dimensions of political violence and counter-violence on tourist flows to Egypt in the 1990s. We find that both US and EU tourists respond negatively to attacks on tourists, but do not appear to be influenced by casualties arising in confrontations between domestic groups. However, European tourists are sensitive to the counter-violence measures implemented by the Egyptian government. There is also evidence of tourism in Egypt being affected by the Israeli / Palestinian conflict, with arrivals of tourists into Egypt rising when fatalities in Israel increase. |
| Keywords: | Tourism, political violence, Egypt |
| JEL: | P48 L83 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1022&r=tur |
| By: | Marek Giergiczny (Warsaw Ecological Economics Center, University of Warsaw); Sviataslau Valasiuk (Warsaw Ecological Economics Center, University of Warsaw); Tomasz Żylicz (Warsaw Ecological Economics Center, University of Warsaw) |
| Abstract: | We look at perspectives of nature protection in a wetland of international importance in South-Western part of Belarus. The region is economically depressed, which may prove to be a factor in local conservation initiatives. A theoretical model is developed to identify conditions for the local population to get involved in the fen mire conservation projects. The model is then verified by means of a choice experiment administered in villages neighbouring the site. The main outcome of the valuation experiments is to demonstrate that a carefully designed conservation programme is likely to enjoy the support of the local population who appreciates economic opportunities provided by saving the wetland. |
| Keywords: | wetlands, biodiversity protection, local development, ecological tourism, choice experiment (CE), random utility model (RUM) |
| JEL: | Q50 Q51 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2010-09&r=tur |
| By: | Peter B. Dixon; Bumsoo Lee; Todd Muehlenbeck; Maureen T. Rimmer; Adam Z. Rose; George Verikios |
| Abstract: | We simulate the effects of a hypothetical H1N1 epidemic in the U.S. using a quarterly CGE model. Quarterly periodicity allows us to capture the short-run nature of an epidemic. We find potentially severe economic effects in the peak quarter. Averaged over the epidemic year the effects are considerably damped. Our results indicate that the macroeconomic consequences of an epidemic are more sensitive to demand-side effects such as reductions in international tourism and leisure activities than to supply-side effects such as reductions in productivity. This suggests that demand stimulus policies might be an appropriate economic response to a serious epidemic. |
| Keywords: | Influenza epidemic Quarterly CGE modelling |
| JEL: | I18 C68 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cop:wpaper:g-202&r=tur |
| By: | Longo, Alberto; Rowan, Emma; Hutchinson, W. George |
| Abstract: | In valuing the demand for recreation, the literature has grown from using revealed preference methods to applying stated preference methods, namely contingent valuation and choice modelling. Recent attempts have merged revealed and stated preference data to exploit the strengths of both sources of data. We use contingent behaviour and choice experiments data to show that, with choice experiments exercises, when respondents are asked to choose which improvement programme they prefer for a site with recreational opportunities, failing to consider the information explaining the number of visits that respondents intend to take to a recreational site under each hypothetical programme leads to biased coefficients estimates in the models for the choice experiments data. |
| Keywords: | travel cost, contingent behaviour, choice experiments, revealed preferences, stated preferences, Environmental Economics and Policy, Q51, Q26, |
| Date: | 2010–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc10:91827&r=tur |
| By: | Campbell, Danny; Lorimer, Victoria; Aravena, Claudia; Hutchinson, George |
| Abstract: | Data from a discrete choice experiment is used to investigate the implications of failing to account for attribute processing strategies (APSs). The research was designed to elicit the economic benefits associated with landscape restoration activities that were intended to remediate environmental damage caused by illegal dumping activities. In this paper we accommodate APSs using an equality constrained latent class model. By retrieving the conditional class membership probabilities we recover estimates of the weights that each respondent assigned to each attribute, which we subsequently use ensure unnecessary weight is not allocated to attributes not attended to by respondents. Results from the analysis provide strong evidence that significant gains in models fit as well as more defensible and reliable willingness to pay estimates can be achieved using when the APSs are accounted for. |
| Keywords: | Attribute processing strategies, environmental restoration, equality constrained latent class model, multinomial logit model, willingness to pay, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2010–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc10:91718&r=tur |
| By: | Campbell, Danny; Doherty, Edel; Hynes, Stephen; van Rensburg, Tom |
| Abstract: | Data from a discrete choice experiment aimed at eliciting the demand for recreational walking trails on farmland in the Republic of Ireland is used to explore the consequences of misspecifying the cost coeffcient. To enable straightforward calculation of WTP from the distributions of the non-price coeffcients, the price coeffcient is typically held constant in mixed logit models. This implies that all respondents are equally price sensitive. In this paper we test the validity of this assumption. Our approach is based on a comparison and combination of discrete and continuous mixing approaches (i.e., a mixture of distributions) to uncover the unobserved heterogeneity in price sensitivities. Results from the analysis highlight that model fit and willingness to pay are sensitive to the distributional assumptions used to represent the price coeffcient. |
| Keywords: | Discrete choice experiments, discrete mixtures, continuous mixtures, mixtures of distributions, price sensitivities, farmland recreation, willing to pay space, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2010–03–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc10:91723&r=tur |
| By: | Shibashis Mukherjee (Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign); Arthur J. Caplan (Department of Applied Economics, Utah State University) |
| Abstract: | We use GIS and econometric methods to estimate the marginal implicit values of environmental amenities associated with residential land parcels in the mountain town of Logan, Utah. Amenities include proximity to open spaces (such as parks, golf courses and lakes), commercial zones, major roads, streams, and general visibility of surrounding topography in the valley as determined by the elevation of the land parcel. The amenity value estimates are corrected for spatial autocorrelation. We find a positive relationship between a parcel’s value and its elevation, and a negative relationship between value and adjacency to a stagnant stream. To our knowledge, this is the first hedonic study to assess the effect of stream stagnancy on land value. |
| Keywords: | hedonic valuation; stagnant streams; high elevation |
| JEL: | Q51 Q59 |
| Date: | 2010–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usu:wpaper:2010-01&r=tur |