Estimating the potential impact of entry fees for marine parks on dive tourism in South East Asia Sean Pascoe a,n , Amar Doshi b , Olivier Thébaud a , Colette R. Thomas c , Heidi Z. Schuttenberg d , Scott F. Heron e,f , Naneng Setiasih g , James C.H. Tan h,i , James True j , Kristy Wallmo k , Christy Loper l , Emma Calgaro m a CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Dutton Park, Queensland, Australia b School of Economics and Finance, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia c Australian Centre for Tropical and Freshwater Research, James Cook University Townsville, Queensland, Australia d University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK e NOAA Coral Reef Watch, Townsville, Australia f School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia g CORAL Indonesia, Renon Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia h Faculty of Maritime Studies and Marine Science, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia i ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia j Prince of Songkla University, Thailand k Economics and Social Analysis Division, National Marine Fisheries Service, Silver Springs, MD, USA l NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, Silver Springs, MD, USA m Macquarie University, NSW, Australia article info Article history: Received 25 September 2013 Received in revised form 18 February 2014 Accepted 18 February 2014 Available online 15 March 2014 Keywords: Coral reef management Non-market valuation Travel cost model Entry fee abstract Marine reserves are increasingly being established as a mechanism to protect marine biodiversity and sensitive habitats. As well as providing conservation benefits, marine reserves provide benefits to recreational scuba divers who dive within the reserve, as well as to recreational and commercial fishers outside the reserve through spill-over effects. To ensure benefits are being realised, management of marine reserves requires ongoing monitoring and surveillance. These are not costless, and many marine reserve managers impose an entry fee. In some countries, dive tourism is major income source to coastal industries, and a concern is that high entry fees may dissuade divers. In this paper, the price elasticity of demand for dive tourism in three countries in South East Asia – Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia – is estimated using a travel-cost model. From the model, the total non-market use value associated with diving in the area is estimated to be in the order of US$4.5 billion a year. The price elasticity of demand in the region is highly inelastic, such that increasing the cost of diving through a management levy would have little impact on total diver numbers. Crown Copyright & 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Marine reserves are being increasingly seen as an appropriate management tool for marine biodiversity conservation and, in some cases, fisheries management [1,2]. The establishment of a marine reserve alone however, is not sufficient to ensure that conservation benefits are realised [3]. Marine reserves require active management – both within and outside the reserve. This includes regular monitoring, surveillance and enforcement [4], as well as active and continual stakeholder engagement in order to minimise opposition to the reserve by those displaced by reserve creation (with the aim of reducing illegal activity within the reserves). Such activities are not costless, and lack of appropriate funding is considered a key cause of failure of marine reserves [5]. Imposing entry fees is one solution to ensure appropriate funds are available for effective management [6]. The user pays principle is commonly employed in resource management, and many countries impose some management levy for users of marine reserves. In many cases, user fees are relatively low, and insuffi- cient to provide adequate financial resources to effectively manage the reserve [5,7]. Dive tourism is major income source to many coastal communities, particularly in terms of accommodation, food expenditure and the provision of other services to tourists. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpol Marine Policy http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2014.02.017 0308-597X Crown Copyright & 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Correspondence to: CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, EcoSciences Precinct, PO Box 2583, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia. Tel.: þ61 7 3833 5966. E-mail address: sean.pascoe@csiro.au (S. Pascoe). Marine Policy 47 (2014) 147–152