Nguyen, Lan-Anh, Nguyen, Manh Hung, Reynaud, Arnaud and Simioni, Michel (2024) A comparative study of residents and tourists' valuation for a heterogeneous environmental good: The case of coastal erosion. Marine Policy, 161 (106038).

Abstract

We provide an in-depth analysis of tourists’ and residents’ preferences for different coastal erosion management programs in Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Vietnam. Using a split-sample choice experiment, we assess how preferences of respondents vary across beach segments affected by coastal erosion in different ways. The choice experiment includes protection structures against coastal erosion (groynes, concrete revetment and stair revetment), soft protection measures (beach nourishment and sandbags) and also some recreational activities usually provided by beaches (restaurants and green spaces). We find that both tourists and residents express strong preferences for a wide public beach protected by structural defenses. However, residents are only willing to financially support beaches with facilities such as trees and restaurants, whereas tourists favor more pristine beaches with only trees. Our results also reveal strong heterogeneity across respondents, especially among residents. Importantly, the paper suggests a need to account for specific characteristics of different beach segments. From a policy perspective, a tourist tax is shown to be a relevant instrument to fund coastal erosion management policies in Hoi An.