Nature tourism and protected area pricing: lessons learned from Africa

Abstract

Decreasing public resources for the environment puts pressure on African
\nresource managers and policy makers to develop alternative strategies
\nfor financing protected areas. Nature tourism is the fastest growing
\nsector in many African countries and is regarded as an opportunity to
\nprovide funding for conservation. However, studies on the economic value
\nof tourism show that there is often a significant gap between nature
\ntourism’s actual and potential contribution to biodiversity conservation.
\nPark entry fees are the most important source of revenue for protected
\nareas, but the degree of revenue capture is low, due to inappropriate
\npricing policies and inefficient financial management systems.
\nImproving efficiency in park pricing is an important step towards
\nachieving economic sustainability in protected area management. Examples
\nof innovative pricing policies are price differentiation between tourists of
\ndifferent origin, differential pricing of parks and linking foreign tourists’
\npark fees to a hard currency value. The key to efficient pricing is a sound
\nunderstanding of supply and demand in the nature tourism market. A
\ncomparison of pricing policies across eastern and southern Africa shows
\nto what extent African countries make use of such approaches.