Sustainable Finance of Protected Areas : Tourism Based User Fees Conservation Finance Guide, Conservation Finance Alliance

Worldwide, tourism is the largest industry, with ecotourism being an important segment of the market. Every year, millions of tourists around the world visit protected areas (PAs) or travel to destinations for nature-based recreation.While PAs often supply the most important part of such recreational experiences, they typically capture very little of the total economic benefits derived from ecotourism. A number of relatively simple, market-based mechanisms – known collectively as tourism user fees (TUFs) –– can gather significant revenues from tourism-based activities, which can then be directed toward supporting PAs and other conservation efforts. The fees partially reflect the cost of supplying recreational services, the demand for natural resources, and the value that visitors place on their experience at the site. The direct link between maintaining natural areas and income from user fees is a strong economic incentive for conservation. Most TUFs are site-level mechanisms (i.e. specific fees for specific activities are collected at PA sites). These site based finance mechanisms are broadly referred to as visitor use fees. A few other types of fees are national level mechanisms. This chapter focuses primarily on site level fees