External Costs from Increased Island Visitation: Results from the Southern Thai Islands

Abstract

Recreational development on islands is often subject to open-access conditions. In the absence of control over aggregate visitation levels, external effects among visitors would lead to visitation rates that were too high, relative to efficient rates. Information on the extent of these externalities would be invaluable in developing visitation management plans. In this study the authors surveyed 1,625 visitors to southern Thai Island resorts and estimated the extent of these external effects using a revealed preference analysis of visits to beaches with different characteristics. Our results show that externalities and resource degradation are substantial in this setting and that welfare losses from open access are relatively large.