Are Tourists Willing to Pay for Aesthetic Quality? An Empirical Assessment from Krabi Province, Thailand

Abstract

This paper assesses the relationships between the viability of the tourism industry and willingness to pay for aesthetic aspects of environmental quality. Incentives to provide high-quality tourism are limited given asymmetric information, adverse selection and positive search costs, with implications both for the sustainability of the tourism industry and for environmental sustainability more broadly defined. An econometric model is estimated in which willingness to pay is captured using resort rents and related to aesthetic quality, after controlling for service levels. A negative relationship is found. Some policy issues are assessed, focusing on the implications for tourism as an engine for sustainable development.