GOOD PRACTICE USER-PAYS SYSTEMS FOR PROTECTED AREAS Michael Hughes, Jack Carlsen, Gary Crilley, Samantha King, Diane Lee and Gail Kennedy GOOD PRACTICE USER-PAYS SYSTEMS FOR PROTECTED AREAS 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. We'd love to know what you think of our new research titles. If you have five minutes to spare, please visit our website to complete our online survey. Sustainable Tourism CRC Tech Report Feedback National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Hughes, Michael. Good practice user-pays systems for protected areas. ISBNs: 9781921521072 (pbk.) 9781921521089 (pdf) Notes: Bibliography. Issued also in printed form. National parks and reserves—Fees—Australia. National parks and reserves—Australia—Management. Other Authors/Contributors: Cooperative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism Dewey Number: 336.16 Copyright © CRC for Sustainable Tourism Pty Ltd 2008 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: General Manager, Communications and Industry Extension or Publishing Manager, [email protected] First published in Australia in 2008 by CRC for Sustainable Tourism Pty Ltd Edited by Kelly Van Asperen Printed in Australia (Gold Coast, Queensland) Cover designed by Sin Design ii GOOD PRACTICE USER-PAYS SYSTEMS FOR PROTECTED AREAS CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ___________________________________________________________________ IV SUMMARY _____________________________________________________________________________ V OBJECTIVES OF STUDY ___________________________________________________________________ V METHOD ______________________________________________________________________________ V Comprehensive review__________________________________________________________________v Protected area manager interviews________________________________________________________v Case study __________________________________________________________________________ vi KEY FINDINGS _________________________________________________________________________ VI RECOMMENDATIONS_____________________________________________________________________ VI CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ____________________________________________________________ 1 CHAPTER 2 METHOD___________________________________________________________________ 2 COMPREHENSIVE LITERATURE REVIEW ______________________________________________________ 2 PROTECTED AREA MANAGER INTERVIEWS____________________________________________________ 2 COST-BENEFIT CASE STUDY ANALYSIS ______________________________________________________ 3 CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW ______________________________________________________ 4 REQUIREMENTS FOR AN EFFECTIVE ‘GOOD PRACTICE’ USER-PAYS SYSTEM __________________________ 5 Cost effectiveness_____________________________________________________________________ 5 Accountability _______________________________________________________________________ 7 Positive public attitudes _______________________________________________________________ 8 Efficient methods of fee collection_______________________________________________________ 11 LITERATURE REVIEW SUMMARY __________________________________________________________ 12 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS _________________________________________________________________ 14 REASONS AND OBJECTIVES FOR USER-PAYS SYSTEMS __________________________________________ 14 FEE REVENUE _________________________________________________________________________ 15 SETTING FEES AND FEE STRUCTURE ________________________________________________________ 16 Disbursal of revenue _________________________________________________________________ 17 Fees and park visits__________________________________________________________________ 18 Social equity _______________________________________________________________________ 19 COST EFFECTIVENESS ___________________________________________________________________ 20 Cost of system ______________________________________________________________________ 20 Technology use _____________________________________________________________________ 21 Compliance ________________________________________________________________________ 22 Economic modelling and user-pays systems _______________________________________________ 23 STAFF ISSUES _________________________________________________________________________ 24 CASE STUDY: YANCHEP NATIONAL PARK ___________________________________________________ 25 Entry fees__________________________________________________________________________ 25 Revenue ___________________________________________________________________________ 25 Costs of entry fee collection____________________________________________________________ 26 Summary __________________________________________________________________________ 26 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION _____________________________________________________________ 27 APPENDIX A __________________________________________________________________________ 28 REFERENCES _________________________________________________________________________ 29 AUTHORS_____________________________________________________________________________ 32 iii GOOD PRACTICE USER-PAYS SYSTEMS FOR PROTECTED AREAS List of Tables Table 1: Six survival essentials for a protected area ______________________________________________ 4 Table 2: Book-keeping for financial sustainability ________________________________________________ 7 Table 3: Reasons provided for implementing user-pays systems in protected areas _____________________ 14 Table 4: Agency identified measurable objectives associated with reasons for user-pays system ___________ 15 Table 5: Summary of factors that influence how user fee introduction or changes could effect park visitation based on information from agency interviews __________________________________________________ 19 Table 6: Summary of Technologies Currently Employed by Agencies ________________________________ 21 Table 7: Yanchep National Park visitor entry counts and revenue report 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007 ______ 25 Table 8: Costs associated with entry fee collection at Yanchep National Park _________________________ 26 List of Figures Figure 1: Model of investigating Good Practice in User-Pays (adapted from ANZECC 2000)______________ 6 Figure 2: Economic model of tourism in protected areas___________________________________________ 7 Figure 3: A summary of the various distribution pathways for user-pays revenue according to project interview data collected from Australian parks agencies (developed as part of this study) ________________________ 18 Acknowledgements The Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre, established and supported under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Program, funded this research. Thanks to the industry reference group for their support and contributions, including: Andrew Roberts (Tasmania Parks and Wildlife), Claire Savage (South Australia Dept of Environment and Heritage), Tracy Shea (Western Australia Department of Environment and Conservation), Brett Simes (South Australia Department Environment and Heritage), Andrew Thornton (New South Wales Parks and Wildlife), David Morgans (Tourism Queensland) and Dino Zanon and Paul Albergo (Parks Victoria). Thanks also to those additional people who contributed their time and knowledge to this project including: Ralph Henderson, Karen Hopper, Colin Ingram, Peter O’Reilly and Rod Quartermaine. iv GOOD PRACTICE USER-PAYS SYSTEMS FOR PROTECTED AREAS SUMMARY Virtually every protected area agency in Australia has adopted some form of user-pays system, but there is still limited understanding of the costs and benefits of these systems. This project involved key Protected Area [PAs] Land Management agencies in all Australian states that impose fees, in order to develop an understanding of the user-pays systems. In developing this knowledge, the guidelines, techniques and templates for assessing user- pays systems for PAs are more likely to be understood and if adopted, applied effectively. It has been recognised that methods of ‘good practice’ must be identified and maintained in user-pays systems to ensure the objectives of park agencies can be met on a long-term basis. Good practice is used in this context as opposed to ‘best’ practice, as it is a more modest term and does not generate the expectations and subjectivity that best practice may imply. For example, what is ‘best’ for some organisations may not be the case for others, and the idea of ‘best’ practice can change over time (Bergin-Seers, Breen, Jago, & Carlsen, 2005). Researchers at Curtin and Murdoch Universities in Western Australia, University of South Australia and University of Tasmania undertook a detailed review of international knowledge regarding user-pays systems to identify the key issues and practices. Based on