The Sceptics' Challenge for Sustainable Tourism in the Southwest China Biodiversity Hotspot: A Choice Experiment Approach

Figures & data

Table 1. Examples of sustainable tourism attitude items.

• In my opinion, extra fees for tourism services, such as green buses, are just an excuse to charge more and rip‐off tourists. (the sceptical attitude dimension) ^§

• I am really afraid of losing the future opportunity for travel enjoyment in southwestern China if the tourism development is not done in a sustainable manner. (the concern of loosing future opportunity dimension)

• Making sure that the members of a local community can run tourism‐related businesses is essential for harmonious tourism development in southwestern China. (the in favour of sustainability dimension)

• Green buses really contribute to keeping the air of destinations clean, and keeping the place quiet. (the in favour of sustainability dimension)

^§Phrase in parenthesis identifies the sustainable tourism attitude dimension to which the item was assigned by factor analysis (see results section).

Table 2. Destination attributes and attribute levels used in choice experiment.

Destination attribute	Attribute levels
Convenience at place just outside of attraction site	1. No car roads, only trails; no hotels or hostels, tourists need to bring their own food;
	2. Difficult motor access; several simple hostels or hotels;
	3. Old roads; some common hotels and restaurants;
	4. National roads and highways; many hotels from two stars to four or five stars, and many restaurants;
Possibility of experiencing Nature (Tarnished nature experience)*	1. Sense of solitude and tranquillity; no tourism infrastructure; no other visitors;
	2. At times, some basic tourism infrastructure (restaurants, stores, toilets) visible; meet other people every hour;
	3. Have big scale tourism infrastructure (cable car, Karaoke), always be aware of “this is a tourism place”; meet other people every minute;
	4. Many kinds of tourism infrastructures everywhere; many “artificial” attractions; very crowded;
Cultural attractions	1. None;
	2. Some traditional old buildings mixed with many modern buildings; no original living culture;
	3. Several traditional local buildings mixed with many modern houses; one temple without usage any more; modernized local customs and culture;
	4. Well preserved traditional local buildings; temples with monks playing roles in local people's life; and well preserved original customs and culture;
Natural attractions	1. Ordinary landscapes; no precious or attractive species;
	2. Magnificent awe‐inspiring natural landscapes; no precious or attractive species;
	3. Ordinary landscapes, many precious species and very abundant species‐rich biodiversity (Panda, Golden Monkey);
	4. Magnificent awe‐inspiring natural landscapes, many precious species and very abundant species‐rich biodiversity (Panda, Golden Monkey);
Sustainable tourism services (STS)	1. Freely visit every place; no visitor restriction; no resource saving or recycling; no community involvement;
	2. Small conservation program only for core attraction area; litter/trash cans; community based business‐restaurants, hostels and small hotels, local specialty stores and horse riding service;
	3. Having buffer zone; scientific conservation program for core area and buffer zone; green buses, bio energy use and waste water treatment; local community participates in decision‐making in local development, and local business involvement (see above);
Local cost of a trip ^&	1. 780RMB
	2. 1440RMB
	3. 2400RMB
	4. 4200RMB
	5. 7200RMB
*The attribute “possibility of experiencing nature (Tarnished nature experience)” has two names. In the choice cards we use the neutral name of “possibility of experiencing nature” to avoid bias caused by wording. In analysis, we used the name “tarnished nature experience” to better reflect the contents of the attribute. &Cost includes the local transportation, lodging, food, entrance fee and other expenses.

Figure 1 Example of a choice set with two choice cards and an opt out/buy nothing option.

Figure 2 Marginal WTP for one unit of improvement of sustainable tourism services.

Table 3. Nested Multinomial Logit Model Result for destination attributes.

Attribute	Coefficient
Convenience	0.1153**
Tarnished Nature experience	−0.2175***
Sustainable Tourism services	0.0197
Cultural attractions	0.1352***
Natural attractions	0.2787***
Cost	−0.1537***
ASC(Alternative Specific Constant)	0.4129*
Log Likelihood function	−1635.785
P(Chi^2); DF	<0.0001; 8
Pseudo R^2 (constant only)	0.076
Inclusive value (IV)	0.9072
***: significant at p⩽0.001; **: significant at p⩽0.01; * significant at p⩽0.05; no indication: not significant; DF: degree of freedom; Pseudo R^2 values in reference to a constant only model‐values between 0.07–0.08 correspond to R^2 values of 0.22 to 0.24 value in for the linear model equivalent (Hensher et al.2005:338), IV statistics are highly different from 0, asterisks denotes difference from 1; n = 213.

Table 4. Summary of influences of attitude towards sustainable tourism dimensions on destination choice (p<0.1; each line represents results from an independent NL model that expands the base model by the interaction term).

Attitude towards sustainable tourism dimension	Interacted with destination choice attribute	Coefficient of attribute term	Coefficient of interaction term
In favour of sustainability	Cost	−0.4162***	0.0214*
Concern for losing opportunities	Convenience	0.4461*	−0.0432*
Sceptical attitude on sustainable tourism services	Sustainable tourism services	0.6546***	−0.106***
	Convenience	0.6281**	−0.0931***
	Tarnished nature experience	0.3996*	−0.0998***
	Cultural attractions	0.4627**	−0.0632*
	Natural attractions	0.5758***	−0.0524*
	Cost	0.0748	−0.041**
	[Non‐status quo [A^§SC]	2.55***	−0.334***
***: p⩽0.001; **: p⩽0.01; *: p⩽0.05; no indication: not significant; ^§: the ASC in brackets as it is a NL model predictor of destination choice but not a destination attribute. n = 112.

Hensher , D. A. , Rose , J. M. and Greene , W. 2005 . Applied choice analysis: A primer Cambridge University Press

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