View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ResearchOnline at James Cook University THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF TOURISM IN THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS By Trevor Mules, Pam Faulks, Natalie Stoeckl and Michele Cegielski ECONOMIC VALUES OF TOURISM IN THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS TECHNICAL REPORTS The technical report series present data and its analysis, meta-studies and conceptual studies, and are considered to be of value to industry, government and researchers. Unlike the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre’s Monograph series, these reports have not been subjected to an external peer review process. As such, the scientific accuracy and merit of the research reported here is the responsibility of the authors, who should be contacted for clarification of any content. Author contact details are at the back of this report. EDITORS Prof Chris Cooper University of Queensland Editor-in-Chief Prof Terry De Lacy Sustainable Tourism CRC Chief Executive Prof Leo Jago Sustainable Tourism CRC Director of Research National Library of Australia Cataloguing in Publication Data Economic values of tourism in the Australian alps. Bibliography. ISBN 1 920704 20 5. 1. Tourism - Economic aspects - New South Wales. 2. Tourism - Economic aspects - Victoria. 3. Tourism - Economic aspects - Australian Capital Territory. 4. National parks and reserves - Economic aspects - Australian Alps (N.S.W. and Vic.). 5. National parks and reserves - Economic aspects - Australian Capital Territory - Namadgi. I. Mules, T. J. (Trevor J.). 338.47919447 Copyright © CRC for Sustainable Tourism Pty Ltd 2005 All rights reserved. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. Any enquiries should be directed to Brad Cox, Communications Manager [[email protected]] or Trish O’Connor, Publishing Manager [[email protected]]. Acknowledgements This research was jointly funded by the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre, the University of Canberra, and the Australian Alps National Parks. ii ECONOMIC VALUES OF TOURISM IN THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS Contents SUMMARY _____________________________________________________________________________ V CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ____________________________________________________________ 1 CHAPTER 2 SAMPLE DESIGN ___________________________________________________________ 2 CHAPTER 3 SURVEY CHARACTERISTICS ________________________________________________ 4 DEMOGRAPHICS ________________________________________________________________________ 4 Group Size__________________________________________________________________________ 4 Age and Gender______________________________________________________________________ 4 Origin _____________________________________________________________________________ 7 Occupation__________________________________________________________________________ 7 BEHAVIOUR ___________________________________________________________________________ 8 Length of Stay _______________________________________________________________________ 8 Nature of Trip ______________________________________________________________________ 10 Activities Undertaken in the Australian Alps ______________________________________________ 11 Organised Tours ____________________________________________________________________ 13 Frequency of Visits to the Australian Alps ________________________________________________ 13 TRIP EXPENDITURE _____________________________________________________________________ 14 CHAPTER SUMMARY ____________________________________________________________________ 16 CHAPTER 4 ECONOMIC IMPACT _______________________________________________________ 17 BACKGROUND_________________________________________________________________________ 17 Methodology and Previous Studies ______________________________________________________ 17 ESTIMATION OF TOTAL VISITOR NUMBERS___________________________________________________ 18 AGGREGATE EXPENDITURE OF VISITORS ____________________________________________________ 19 IMPACTS ON GSP AND EMPLOYMENT _______________________________________________________ 19 CHAPTER 5 RECREATION USE – VALUE OF THE ALPS___________________________________ 24 INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________________________ 24 GENERAL APPROACH ___________________________________________________________________ 24 CONSUMER SURPLUS ESTIMATES FOR THE VISITOR SAMPLE _____________________________________ 26 The Data __________________________________________________________________________ 26 The Visitation Equations ______________________________________________________________ 26 Consumer Surplus Attributable to Surveyed Visitors ________________________________________ 26 TOTAL CONSUMER SURPLUS AND RECREATION USE VALUE _____________________________________ 27 CONCLUSIONS_________________________________________________________________________ 29 CHAPTER SUMMARY ____________________________________________________________________ 29 APPENDIX A - METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES _____________________________________________ 30 APPENDIX B: VISITATION EQUATIONS FOR ALL FUNCTIONAL FORMS __________________ 41 APPENDIX C: CONSUMER SURPLUS ESTIMATES FOR ALL FUNCTIONAL FORMS_________ 48 REFERENCES _________________________________________________________________________ 49 AUTHORS_____________________________________________________________________________ 51 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Origin of visitors to the Australian Alps ____________________________________________ v Table 2. Economic impact of visitors to the Australian Alps, 2001 ______________________________ vi Table 3. Estimates of per-person consumer surplus, annual consumer surplus and recreation use value_vii Table 4. Group size of visitors to the Australian Alps ________________________________________ 4 Table 5. Frequency of group sizes of visitors to the Australian Alps _____________________________ 4 Table 6. Origin of visitors to the Australian Alps ____________________________________________ 7 Table 7. Origin of international visitors to the Australian Alps _________________________________ 7 Table 8. Occupation of visitors to Australian Alps ___________________________________________ 8 Table 9. Average length of stay in the Australian Alps _______________________________________ 9 Table 10. Other activities undertaken by visitors to the Australian Alps __________________________ 13 Table 11. Ratio of resident to non resident visitors___________________________________________ 14 Table 12. Average expenditure in ACT Alps per visitor ______________________________________ 15 Table 13. Average expenditure in NSW Alps per visitor______________________________________ 15 Table 14. Average expenditure in Victorian Alps per visitor___________________________________ 16 Table 15. Estimated visitor numbers to Australian Alps, 2001 _________________________________ 18 Table 16. Aggregate expenditure by visitors, 2001, $m. ______________________________________ 19 iii ECONOMIC VALUES OF TOURISM IN THE AUSTRALIAN ALPS Table 17. Average and total expenditure by visitors, ACT ____________________________________ 20 Table 18. Average and total expenditure by visitors, NSW ____________________________________ 20 Table 19. Average and total expenditure by visitors, Victoria__________________________________ 21 Table 20. Economic impacts on the ACT economy__________________________________________ 21 Table 21. Economic impacts on the NSW economy _________________________________________ 22 Table 22. Economic impacts on the Victorian economy ______________________________________ 23 Table 23. Example of observed travel costs and visits________________________________________ 25 Table 24. Example of predicted travel costs and visits _______________________________________ 25 Table 25. Regions used in the travel cost study _____________________________________________ 26 Table 26. Consumer surplus estimates ____________________________________________________ 26 Table 27. ‘Plausible’ consumer surplus estimates from the visitor sample ________________________ 27 Table 28. Visitor numbers: sampled and total______________________________________________ 27 Table 29. Average regional per-person consumer surplus _____________________________________ 28 Table 30. ‘Plausible’ range of consumer surplus estimates for all visitors ________________________ 28 Table 31. ‘Plausible’ estimates of recreation use value _______________________________________ 28 Table 32. Travel costs, visits and population _______________________________________________ 32 Table 33. Visitation equations for region 1 ________________________________________________ 41 Table 34. Visitation equations for region 2 ________________________________________________ 42 Table 35. Visitation equations for region 3 ________________________________________________ 43 Table 36. Visitation equations for region 4 ________________________________________________ 44 Table 37. Visitation equations for region 5 ________________________________________________ 45 Table 38. Visitation equations for region 6 ________________________________________________ 46 Table 39. Visitation equations for region 7 ________________________________________________ 47 Table 40. Consumer surplus estimates (from the sample of visitors, with TC = 50 cents per km) ______ 48 Table 41. Per-person estimates