Fonte: El Periplo Sustentable; Núm. 41 (2021): Número Cuarenta y uno; 447 - 470
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Resumo: Economic benefits from nature-based tourism activities with whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) in La Paz Bay have not been quantified monetarily. The study aims are: 1) to estimate the economic benefits of recreational ecosystem services of nature-based tourism activities with whale shark and, 2) to establish a base line that could assist to propose differentiated access fees by visitor’s provenance. We conducted 134 interviews to tourists who swam with whale shark. Survey included sociodemographic, site quality, and experience perception aspects. The economic benefits of nature-based tourism with whale shark were estimated appliyin the market price method and it yields a value about 3.292 million US$, highlighting that domestic visitor´s has a higher benefit appreciation from the activity than foreign visitor´s. Hypothesis test indicates that there is not statistically significant difference among travel and total cost, but there is statistical significative difference between average travel cost and total cost by domestic and foreign visitor respectively. Meanwhile, ANOVA shows that there is not statistical difference regarding average travel cost between tourist provenance (domestic, American, Canadian, European and other); but there is not significative difference for average total cost by visitor´s provenance. These results give the opportunity to set a base line to propose differentiated access fees by tourist provenance, which would enforce and encourage sustainable finance for the protected area of whale shark at La Paz Bay, if implemented.
