Are Potential Tourists Willing to Pay More for Improved Accessibility? Preliminary Evidence from the Gargano National Park

Enabling a sustainable rural-tourism: The challenge of accessibility

This paper explores the concept of sustainable tourism in rural areas and the relationship with the social dimension. In particular we address the issue of people with disabilities, above all physical, starting from the statement that the number of people with disabilities willing to practice tourism it’s always increasing over the years and will continue to increase due to the aging population.

The work focuses on the one hand on the exploratory analysis of this category of consumers/tourists through the analysis of the literature aimed at identifying relevant research themes highlighted which is still virgin and not very attentive. Furthermore, the study aims to verify, again with on-desk investigation, what is the state of the art of the services offered in the rural area (parks, naturalistic sites, farms (specifically wineries); what services are available and how the information is communicated to the final consumer. The work highlights a still strong lack of: services offered; adequate promotion and communication policy, which allows this category of consumers to access even just simple information. Then from this exploratory analysis arises the fundamental need for a more careful research and proposal of adequate regulations, services and marketing actions suitable to overcome the barriers of structural and information accessibility, as well as the need to expand a calibrated offer of recreational and sports services, still lacking today.

Estimating the Probability of Visiting a Protected Natural Space and Its Conditioning Factors: The Case of the Monfragüe Biosphere Reserve (Spain)

Spain is the European country with the highest percentage of protected areas (27.4% of its total surface area) and the country with the highest number of Biosphere Reserves, with 53. Extremadura, the region that we analyze in our study, has a total of 89 Special Conservation Areas and 71 Special Protection Areas, Monfragüe being one of them. In this context, the aim of this paper is to determine which factors have an influence on the decision to visit Monfragüe. We perform a regression analysis using a logit model, which shows that the only four factors that influence the decision to visit Monfragüe are gender, travelling with one’s partner or family, the type of accommodation, and the importance given to nature conservation. We also analyze the structural change using the Chow test, which shows that there are no structural changes, i.e., that the probability of visiting Monfragüe in the high or low season is not significantly different. In the case of Monfragüe, ecotourism is not currently practiced en masse; only 3 out of 10 tourists practice ecotourism in Monfragüe, which is important for the sustainable management of the park because the number of tourists it receives each year is within its carrying capacity.

Evaluating the Economic Benefits of Tightening Regulations on the Use of Toluene, a Hazardous Chemical, in South Korea

The South Korean government currently designates toluene as a hazardous chemical, only limiting its use in products that are feared to be harmful. Since no measures to prohibit the use of toluene have been implemented, toluene is frequently detected in amounts that exceed the limit. Accordingly, the Government is considering implementing a plan to tighten the current regulations related to the use of toluene to prevent the occurrence of diseases caused by exposure and addiction to it. Therefore, the most important objective of this research is to evaluate quantitatively the economic benefits arising from the implementation of the plan in South Korea. To achieve the purpose of this paper, contingent valuation, an economic technique for analyzing data collected from a survey of people based on economic theory, is applied. For this purpose, a survey of 1000 people nationwide is conducted, and an analysis model that is well received in the literature is adopted. In other words, the annual willingness to pay (WTP) per household to strengthen the regulations to reduce the human health risks of toluene is evaluated to calculate its economic benefits. All the estimated WTP models secure statistical significance. The average WTP per household per annum is derived as KRW 3394 (USD 3.02). Considering that the country contained 20,573,060 households in 2021, the national economic benefits are calculated as KRW 69.82 billion (USD 62.23 million) every year. It is difficult to estimate accurately the costs incurred by tightening the regulations on toluene use, but they do not seem to exceed the benefits. Because tightening the regulations would be socially desirable, the Government would be justified in making this decision.