Recreational Ecosystem Services (RES) are
among the most frequently evaluated ecosystem
services. RES are seen as a major opportunity for
sustainable development in areas of high ecological
value resulting from the presence of emblematic
species, habitats or scenery, often integrated in
conservation areas, in particular in mountain areas
affected by depopulation, rising environmental risks
and poverty. Economically, the assessment of RES has
been based on Contingent Valuation and Choice
Experiments, methods with limitations related to
their subjectivity. Alternatively, Input-Output (IO)
models provide a very accurate and effective way of
valuation of RES with regional information regarding
interindustry transactions. Whilst data on nature
tourist expenditure may be only available annually,
tourism inflows have a strong seasonal behavior,
which impacts the profitability of several local
economic activities. In this paper, we firstly
constructed a novel regionalized IO-model based on
Cross-Industry Location Quotients using employment
data and, secondly, based on Monte Carlo simulation,
we estimated nature tourist expenditure monthly
using data on nature tourism inflows. This method
allowed for a more precise RES evaluation, estimating
direct, indirect and induced monthly economic
impacts of nature-based tourism. The method was
applied to the Ordesa and Monte Perdido (OMP)
National Park in the Spanish Pyrenees. To estimate
the average tourist expenditure, we collected and
analyzed spending on commerce, hospitality and
restaurants, leisure, and transport of 385 visitors.
Results suggest that using a regionalized IO model
leads to a considerable reduction of over-estimation
of the economic impact of tourist expenditure
estimated by conventional methods. Taking into
consideration the direct, indirect and induced effects
of tourist expenditure in 2016-2018, the total annual
output effect in the OMP National Park amounted to €208.8 million, while the total income effect
amounted to €86.29 million. Also, a total of 2,429
jobs were created which indicates that for each
thousand annual visitors to the National Park, 3.8
jobs are created in the surrounding area. Overall, the
proposed methodology can be easily applied to the
remaining National Parks in Spain or other regions in
the world, making it a valuable tool to estimate the
value of RES in areas affects by strong seasonality, to
set priorities and support regional policies for
mountain sustainable development.
We gratefully acknowledge financial support
from the Organismo Autónomo de Parques
Nacionales (Project V09-Cátedra de Parques
Nacionales) to the development of this study. The
authors would like to acknowledge the entire staff and
the stakeholders of the Ordesa and Monte Perdido
National Park for their support in this endeavor.
