The contribution of economic, social and environmental factors to life and tourist satisfaction

The world faces many different challenges such as climate change, refugee flows, terrorism, and the ongoing consequences of the global financial crisis. In response, many governments aim to foster economic growth, regarding GDP as an indicator for overall progress and a proxy for overall well-being. However, research has shown that increasing GDP does not necessarily increase the levels of well-being or life satisfaction (LS) experienced by individuals, particularly within the developed world. Many different factors influence an individual's wellbeing; these factors are interrelated together forming a highly complex, dynamic system of which economic activity is just one part. A focus on GDP means that other factors that may contribute equally, or even more, to overall well-being than GDP may be ignored. Economics is traditionally the science of choice and provides many tools and methods to consider trade-offs and choices; these methods work particularly well when considering trade-offs between priced goods or services, but it is more difficult to assess trade-offs between non-priced items. Difficult, but not impossible. Economics focuses on utility (historically assumed only measureable in ordinal terms), and revealed and stated preference valuation methods (such as contingent valuation and choice modelling) were developed to monetise the values of non-market goods. That said, these traditional valuation methods restrict the researcher to investigating just a small part of the picture (perhaps looking at choice between option 1 rather than option 2) rather than taking a more holistic approach (whereby many different options are considered within the analysis). More recently it has emerged that LS can be used as a (cardinal) proxy for 'utility' which negates the need to rely on valuation methods that assume utility is only measurably ordinally and which allows researchers to take a more holistic view of 'value'. LS researchers seek to understand more about factors affecting people's overall LS – often regressing LS against a wide range of explanatory variables to determine which factors contribute most/least to LS. The LS literature focuses on explaining variations in satisfaction with life to inform social policy, but the insights gained from this research approach need not be restricted to social policy. The LS approach is likely to be a useful tool for industry to evaluate customer satisfaction in commercial enterprises. Analogously, marketing studies sometimes rely, like non-market valuation studies, on techniques such as choice modelling, to identify key factors contributing to customer satisfaction. Despite similarities (in both the underlying concepts and the methodologies adopted) between the study of what makes individuals satisfied with their lives (and thus what trade-offs they must face), and what makes customer satisfied with their purchases/choices in the commercial world (and thus what trade-offs they must face), as far as I am aware, no-one has investigated both using a conceptually parallel approach to see what lessons can be learnt from the comparison. The overall aim of my thesis is thus to improve our understanding of the trade-offs that arise within complex interlinked social-economic-environmental systems. I focus on both trade-offs for social policy and trade-offs for industry. The region of Queensland, Australia, including urban and rural areas, adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is used as a study area primarily because of its natural beauty and abundance of resources which presents numerous trade-offs for assessment. The local economy, for example, is focused around three industries, mining, agriculture and tourism, all of which are based on using the environment, in sometimes competitive ways. The thesis addresses four specific research objectives to fill a number of identified research gaps. Objectives one and two focus on the commercial sector, using tourism as the case study industry, investigating tourist trip satisfaction. Objectives three and four focus on the public sector, investigating residents LS. Objective one is addressed in Chapter 3. First, I investigate the determinants of tourist trip satisfaction (TS). The insights I concentrate on here are those relating to the potential impact of climate change on tourism. Using (secondary) survey data collected from tourists visiting the GBR catchment region, I find that economic, social and environmental factors all influence TS, along with factors specific to the visit. I found that the relationship between maximum temperatures and TS is non-linear; it has an inverted U shape, with the average maximum daily temperature that optimises TS found to be just above 29 degrees centigrade. This finding could have significant implications for the tourism industry, across the world. Global warming could result in a redistribution of tourists between regions, with hotter regions suffering due to the negative relationship between temperatures and trip satisfaction above 29 degrees, whilst currently cooler regions benefit from the positive relationship between maximum temperatures and tourist satisfaction at lower temperatures. Objective two is addressed within Chapter 4, using the same dataset as Chapter 3. To determine how changes to factors impacting TS may subsequently affect the likelihood of tourists returning, a two stage ordinal regression with instrumental variables is applied to estimate the TS model. Ordinal regression is then used to estimate the model explaining variations in the likelihood of the tourist returning with TS as one of the explanatory variables. A significant positive relationship is found between TS and the likelihood of repeat visits, whilst TS is found to be influenced by environmental, social and economic factors, in addition to income, whether the tourist visited the Reef and whether they had just arrived in the region. These relationships were then used to estimate a financial value for the impact (in terms of lost revenues from reduced numbers of returning visitors) that could result from deterioration in any factors that influence TS. A deterioration of 10% in perceptions of crime, or intensity of construction work, or water turbidity (with all other factors held constant) is estimated to reduce the tourism income generated in the regional economy by between $300,000 and$400,000 per annum. Objective three is addressed in Chapter 5, using (secondary) survey data collected from residents of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. Principal component analysis is used to group different factors that may explain variations in LS into separable discrete categories, based on subjective data regarding the importance of, and the satisfaction with, these factors. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) is used to estimate a LS model including the composite variables calculated from the groupings, finding that significant composite variables represent the social, environmental and economic domains, and finding significant spatial variations in the factors contributing to resident LS. Social factors have the strongest impact on LS across the region; but the second strongest influencer is the environment in the northern and central sections of the region, and income for the south of the region. These variations in preferences were found to correspond to the electoral boundaries that existed prior to the fairly recent local government amalgamations. It was apparent that those successful amalgamations comprised combinations of regions with fairly homogenous preferences whilst the unsuccessful amalgamations (that were subsequently reversed) tried to combine residents with very different preferences. Thus improved understanding of spatial variations in preferences gained from the LS approach could provide clear benefits if used to inform discussions regarding the redrawing of electoral boundaries or amalgamating existing electorates.Objective four is addressed in Chapter 6, using (secondary) survey data collected from residents of the GBR catchment region. Variations in the LS of residents are explained using GWR to specifically identify and evaluate the spatial heterogeneity of values within the region, including a composite variable derived from exploiting principal component analysis to represent the satisfaction of residents with the cultural ecosystem services provided by the GBR. Cultural ecosystem services comprise a wide range of values including existence and bequest constructs that arise from people's beliefs or understandings. Significant spatial variation is found in the residents' values, with those of the north appearing to gain relatively more satisfaction from the cultural ecosystem services (and less satisfaction from income) than residents of the south. The coefficients from this LS model are used to estimate the compensation required to maintain current level of resident LS should there be a decline in their satisfaction with these cultural ecosystem services, finding that the cultural ecosystem services provided by the GBR contribute to resident LS, with an estimated value of around $8.7 billion per annum. This study indicates that the LS valuation approach offers promise as an alternate method for estimating the hard to monetise non-market non-use values. Overall, the key findings are that factors from all domains of life – social, environmental and economic – are important to trip and life satisfaction. Of these, economic factors are frequently the least important in explaining LS, although significant spatial variations exist in the significance and magnitude of impact that the different explanatory factors have. Distinct spatial variations are found – income is more important to residents in the south of the study region whilst for those in the north, social and/or environmental factors are more important. The LS approach has been demonstrated as a highly versatile tool, enabling us to better understand what truly makes people satisfied with their lives or purchases; my findings reveal that different things contribute differently to the satisfaction of different people in different places. Thus a national or international focus on increasing GDP is unlikely to meet the preferences of most people; local solutions focused on the local preferences and choices of people in particular areas are much more likely to improve the welfare of the people. Similarly, commercial organisations are likely to find that a better understanding of the preferences of their customers, and the spatial variations within these, will enable them to differentiate their service offering and thus best satisfy the preferences of those people who comprise their potential customer base

Spatial variations in contributors to life satisfaction: an Australian case study

What people consider important, and how these factors contribute to their self-reported life satisfaction (LS), varies significantly across regions. Here, we analyse for the first time how LS varies across space and what factors best explain LS at different locations. Geographically weighted regressions (GWR) were used to analyse the relationship between LS and seventeen objective variables across Australia. We find that contributors to LS vary considerably but individuals living in relative proximity to each other share similar perspectives. Taking into account the spatially explicit heterogeneity of a population allows for the assessment of federal policies at local or regional levels, increasing the likelihood that their impacts will be consistent with the original intent. It also enables the perspectives of the diversity of cultures within a nation to be better understood

New methods for valuing, and for identifying spatial variations, in cultural services: a case study of the Great Barrier Reef

Estimating values for ecosystem services (ES) can contribute to the decision making process, reducing the risk that ES benefits are overlooked. For ES with no (direct or indirect) links to markets, valuation is a non-trivial exercise. Traditional methods require the use of hypothetical markets; the life satisfaction (LS) approach does not. LS has previously been used to estimate the value of regulating ES, but to the best of our knowledge has never been used to estimate the value of cultural services (CS). We examine the relationship between LS and a subset of CS provided by the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), (the non-use CS), using geographically weighted regression to investigate spatial variations in value. After controlling for other factors, we find income is more important to LS in the south than the north; the opposite is true for non-use CS. The coefficients are used to estimate the amount of income required to keep overall LS constant, should the non-use CS of the GBR not be preserved, estimated at $8.7 bn annually. We acknowledge the imperfections of our work, noting the need for research on better CS measures, but feel that the general approach may add another useful tool to the valuation toolbox

The impact of economic, social and environmental factors on trip satisfaction and the likelihood of visitors returning

Tourism is vital to the economy of many regions; however visitor numbers in some are stagnating. Using a novel approach, this case study of the Great Barrier Reef explores and quantifies risks to visitor numbers, utilising tourist survey data supplemented by objective data from secondary sources. Economic, social and environmental factors affecting trip satisfaction are identified, which itself is found to affect the likelihood of a tourist returning; the impact of changes on trip satisfaction and on repeat visits is then estimated. Linkages between tourism and other industries are clearly demonstrated; increased construction work, decreased water clarity and decreased perceptions of tourist safety are all estimated to significantly reduce likelihood of repeat visits and hence impact tourist revenues, placing the financial viability of the industry at risk. Future development within the region should be evaluated holistically, rather than industries such as tourism, construction, agriculture etc. each being developed in isolation

Evaluation of the ICT Test Bed project: final report, June 2007

The report describes three strands of evaluation used in the review of the 2006 outcomes from ICT Test Bed and the findings from each strand. a) Quantitative data: Benchmarking of changes in performance on national tests against matched comparator schools and national averages; b) Qualitative data: Site visits including classroom observations, interviews with local authority managers, head teachers, teachers, administrative staff, technicians and students; and c) Document analysis

Toward better measurement of sustainable development and wellbeing: a small number of SDG indicators reliably predict life satisfaction

In 2015, all 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These 17 goals, 169 targets, and 232 indicators (including over 650 indicators if all the subdivisions are included) are intended to guide and improve sustainable wellbeing and life satisfaction for everyone on earth. Challenges include the fact that many indicators are not measured or reliably tracked in many countries, the cost of tracking is unclear, and no explicit overarching goal exists. To highlight some of the problems with this approach, we model life satisfaction(LS) survey scores by country, as a proxy for overall wellbeing, as the dependent variable against the official 232 SDG indicators. Using a constrained linear regression approach (LASSO), we identify a model that includes only 8 of the 232 indicators and explains 84% of the variation in LS. These eight indicators are proxies for economic, social, and environmental variables. We also cluster countries according to these indicators and LS showing correlation within geographical and cultural regions. We discuss these results with regard to the meaning and measurement of sustainable development vs. sustainable wellbeing and its relationship with LS and the SDGs. We recommend how these results can be used to prioritize goals and measurement efforts to create more meaningful and useful measures of sustainable wellbein

Increasing uptake of improved land management practice to benefit environment and landholders: insights through a transaction cost lens

Transaction costs, related to either investigating improved land management practices (ILMP), engaging in adoption support programs for these practices and/or implementing changes on-ground, create barriers to ILMP adoption. Perceived and actual transaction costs have long been hypothesised as a potential barrier to grazier adoption of ILMPs in catchments to the Great Barrier Reef. Applying a framework derived from transaction cost theory, we assess this hypothesis. Through semi-structured interviews of a sample of participants in two ILMP programs, we find that ILMP adoption support program characteristics have a large influence on perceived and actual transaction costs of landholders seeking to engage in ILMP programs or adopt ILMPs. The importance of establishing and nurturing relationships between landholders and extension officers was also highlighted as critical to reducing landholder transaction costs. The degree to which relationships reduce transaction costs demonstrates the importance of fostering landholder leadership in ILMP program design as well as targeted extension in supporting adoption

Multiple co-benefits of Indigenous land and sea management programs across northern Australia: final report

Our aim is to generate information that can be used to help design, monitor, and/or select ILSMPs to help meet the goals of key stakeholders. We focus on goals above and beyond environmental goals – i.e. those that can be considered to be co-benefits. These diverse goals include seeking to enhance individual wellbeing, help communities meet their aspirations, support the development of Indigenous businesses and/or promote regional economic development. When determining what an ‘Indigenous land and sea management program’ is, we visualise a Venn diagram with intersecting sets. • Set one: There are innumerable traditional Indigenous land and sea management activities or practices that have been going on for tens of thousands of years – these include, but are not limited to getting out on country, looking after waterholes, hunting and burning (Section 2.1.1). • Set two: Government and non-government organisations fund a variety of different programs, some of which support Indigenous people and some of which support land management (Section 2.1.2). Not all land mangagement programs facilitate Indigenous practices, and not all Indigenous programs facilitate land management. For the purposes of this project, we focus on the intersection of those two sets, defining an ILSMP as a program that funds or supports traditional Indigenous land management activities