Environmental quality and tourism development in the Seychelles: An application of the stated preference method

The purpose of this study is to choose and develop an appropriate demand model which reflects nature-based tourist decision-making process which in turn can be used to value nature-based tourism in the Seychelles. The information provided by such a model should then be able to guide sustainable tourism planning.;A number of different tourism demand models are available to value tourist demand for ecological destinations. Among the possible models to choose from are the typical trip model based on revealed preference (RP) data and the stated preference (SP) models based on stated choice survey methods. Each model provides different degrees of fiexibility and information quality.;The stated choice model has been used in both the tourism and the recreation literatures. Historically in the tourism domain, this model has primarily been used as a marketing tool while recently in the recreation literature, it has been used to calculate willingness to pay values for environmental goods and services and for sustainable development planning. This research study is unique in that it uses a stated choice model to provide information for both ecotourism marketing and sustainable tourism planning. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...