Are tourists willing to pay additional fees to protect corals in Mexico?

James F. Casey, Washington and Lee University

Abstract

Coral reefs have been referred to as the rainforests of the sea, maintaining the most diverse forms of life on earth. Unfortunately, fifty-eight percent of the world’s reefs are potentially threatened by human activity. The primary objective of this paper is to determine if tourists, visiting the Riviera Maya, Mexico are willing to pay an entrance fee to enhance coral reef protection. We use a discrete choice contingent valuation (CV) experiment with almost 400 visitors to determine a measure of compensating variation for contributing to a public trust to protect corals. Results suggest there are significant possibilities for implementing a “coral fund” to raise revenues for coral protection programs in the Riviera Maya region of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.