Assessing Visitor Preferences and Willingness to pay for Marine National Park Hikkaduwa: application of choice experiment method

Eco-tourism all over the world is threatened by the fact that the coral reefs and associated ecosystems are in a process of disappearing at an accelerated rate due to several natural and anthropogenic causes. In this context, the Marine National Park Hikkaduwa (MNPH), one of the four marine national parks in Sri Lanka, that features a fringing coral reef with a high degree of biodiversity, reports a decreasing trend in visitation mainly due to a condition of coral bleaching caused by an El Nino effect. Unfortunately, the regeneration of the corals is found to be slowed by continuous anthropogenic activities. Against this background, the research focuses on investigating how visitor behaviour changes with the degraded situation and what avenues are available to attract more visitors to ensure benefit flows. In this concern, visitor preferences regarding the quality of the habitats and other facilities and their significance were analysed under a conditional logistic regression model. Further, a choice experiment was carried out with a randomly selected group of 200 visitors to diagnose their response to the present condition of the coral reef, the beach, and the facilities provided. Under a conditional logistic model, it was discovered that the condition of the coral reef is an important attribute that answers the question of why visitors are not willing to pay if the corals are bleached and broken. It was also discovered that the visitors are willing to pay LKR 322.52 if they are provided with new boats and new safety jackets. The results indicate that benefit flows could be enhanced with the restoration of coral ecosystems and the improvement of the physical infrastructure. Overall, the research attempts to establish that the standard maintenance of the coral reef along with high-quality visitor welfare facilities to match visitor preferences will positively impact all types of payment compliance issues with regard to the visitors

Visitor Perception of the Degradation of Bar Reef Kalpitiya Sri Lanka

Bar Reef is a complex marine ecosystem with over 120 coral species living in the reef and over 300 fish species reported from the surrounding sea. It was declared a marine sanctuary in 1992. Despite efforts for conservation, the Bar Reef ecosystem is at risk of degradation due to overexploitation of extractive uses, namely, edible fish, other seafood species, and aquarium fish. In addition, destructive fishing practices are also responsible for damaging the reef ecosystem. The designation of Kalpitiya as a significant tourism promotion area has created additional pressure on the system. Further, the worldwide incidence of coral bleaching in 1998 has severely affected a major part of the Bar Reef. However, the amount of degradation persistent in the bar reef has not been valued so far. This research has attempted to value the extent of degradation prevailing in the Bar Reef from the perception of the visitors. It has used Choice Experiment Method to assess the visitors’ perception of the degradation. Randomly selected 250 visitors were interviewed and the conditional logit model has been used to investigate the visitor preferences towards the habitat quality and analyze the significance of their preferences. According to the results obtained reduction of plastic and polythene by 50%, reducing the crowding in the beach area by 15%, and paying Rs. 1000 has become significant. Hence it is expected by this research to provide a signal to the relevant stakeholders on the extent of degradation prevailing and the importance of protecting this habitat