Measuring the Impact of Infectious Diseases on Tourists’ Willingness to Pay to Visit Island Destinations

Atmosphere

CarmenGarcía Galindo¹  YenE. Lam-González¹  MatíasM. González Hernández¹  CarmeloJ. León¹ 

[1] Institute of Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development (TIDES), Campus de Tafira, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palma, Spain;

关键词: tourism;    climate change;    islands;    infectious diseases;    adaptation;    resilience;   

DOI  :  10.3390/atmos11101117

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The occurrence of infectious diseases may change tourists’ perceptions of a destination’s image and value. This article proposes and empirically tests a choice model to measure the effect of the risk of infectious disease outbreaks caused by climate change on tourists’ willingness to pay for holidays to island destinations. With this aim, an online survey was administrated to 2538 European frequent travellers at their country of residence. Tourists were presented with a hypothetical situation whereby they had to choose among eleven well-known European island destinations for their next holiday. The choice cards included the probability of the occurrence of infectious disease events in the context of other potential risks caused by climate change (i.e., forest fires, floods, heat waves, etc.). The results show infectious disease is the risk that more negatively affects tourists’ willingness to pay to visit islands, followed by forest fires. The results have implications for tourism policy, highlighting the importance of prevention and response strategies, and the design of climate-oriented services, which may raise opportunities to work towards the enhancement of those health and environmental conditions of tourist destinations that ensure their sustainability in the longer term.

【 授权许可】

Unknown