Options
The regional economic impact of Bavarian Forest National Park
Type
applied research project
Start Date
01 January 2007
End Date
30 June 2008
Status
completed
Keywords
tourism
regional economic impact
regional economics
conservation
protected areas
Description
Situated at the interface of nature conservation and tourism, this project explores the potential of protected areas to contribute to regional economic development in structurally laggard regions. Unlike in countries like the US, the potential of marketing protected areas as tourist brands and turning them into powerhouses for regional development in rural areas has remained largely untapped in Germany. For the most part, concerns over potential disturbances created through tourist activity do not hold: it is only in very few cases that tourism constitutes a serious threat to biodiversity and the preservation of the habitats of rare species and appropriate management of tourist activity is usually able to coordinate competing interests on land use.
Beyond ecological factors, it is frequently the sceptical attitude of the local population and the lack of cooperation between tourism organizations, businesses and the park management which impede an enhanced presentation of the recreational values of protected areas. In this situation, economic arguments are often employed to bolster up the position of the management authorities of protected areas and invalidate claims that protected areas retard economic development by deliberately taking productive agricultural, forest or grazing lands out of use. What is more, the demonstrated economic value of protected areas, also vis-à-vis alternative uses, can leverage acceptance by the local population.
In our project we aim to quantify the regional economic effects of Bavarian Forest National Park, the oldest of the German national parks. Collection of primary data is a highly time-consuming component of the project and covers the two main revenue streams associated with the national park: visitor expenditure and park-specific subsidies by the state government, such as annual budgets or one-off payments for specific larger projects. In determining visitor expenditure we additionally try to distinguish between genuine national park visitors, coming specifically to see the national park, and casual national park visitors, whose visit was not motivated by the presence of the national park.
Overall expenditure is then broken down into different categories and adjusted by regional multipliers which calculate the regional income captured in every category. In the absence of a regional input-output model, we build regional multipliers through interviews with local businesses. In a final step, we consolidate total annual expenditure and annual regional income captured. Using full-time job equivalents as an easily intelligible measurement, we are able to specify the contribution of Bavarian Forest National Park to employment in the regional labour market.
Beyond ecological factors, it is frequently the sceptical attitude of the local population and the lack of cooperation between tourism organizations, businesses and the park management which impede an enhanced presentation of the recreational values of protected areas. In this situation, economic arguments are often employed to bolster up the position of the management authorities of protected areas and invalidate claims that protected areas retard economic development by deliberately taking productive agricultural, forest or grazing lands out of use. What is more, the demonstrated economic value of protected areas, also vis-à-vis alternative uses, can leverage acceptance by the local population.
In our project we aim to quantify the regional economic effects of Bavarian Forest National Park, the oldest of the German national parks. Collection of primary data is a highly time-consuming component of the project and covers the two main revenue streams associated with the national park: visitor expenditure and park-specific subsidies by the state government, such as annual budgets or one-off payments for specific larger projects. In determining visitor expenditure we additionally try to distinguish between genuine national park visitors, coming specifically to see the national park, and casual national park visitors, whose visit was not motivated by the presence of the national park.
Overall expenditure is then broken down into different categories and adjusted by regional multipliers which calculate the regional income captured in every category. In the absence of a regional input-output model, we build regional multipliers through interviews with local businesses. In a final step, we consolidate total annual expenditure and annual regional income captured. Using full-time job equivalents as an easily intelligible measurement, we are able to specify the contribution of Bavarian Forest National Park to employment in the regional labour market.
Leader contributor(s)
Job, Hubert
Member contributor(s)
Mayer, Marius
Woltering, Manuel
Mueller, Martin
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
tourism
regional economic impact
regional economics
conservation
protected areas
Method(s)
survey
value-added analysis
regional economics
Range
HSG Internal
Range (De)
HSG Intern
Division(s)
Eprints ID
55835
3 results
Now showing
1 - 3 of 3
-
PublicationDie regionalwirtschaftliche Bedeutung des Nationalparks Bayerischer Wald(Verein zum Schutz der Bergwelt, 2009)
;Mayer, Marius ;Mueller, MartinWoltering, ManuelType: book section -
PublicationRegional economic impact of Bavarian Forest National Park(IUCN, 2011)
;Job, Hubert ;Mayer, Marius ;Woltering, Manuel ;Mueller, Martin ;Harrer, Bernhard ;Metzler, Daniel ;Vasilijević, MajaPezold, TomaszType: book section -
PublicationDer Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald als regionaler Wirtschaftsfaktor(Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald, 2008)
;Job, Hubert ;Mayer, Marius ;Woltering, Manuel ;Mueller, Martin ;Harrer, BernhardMetzler, DanielType: book