Consumption process and multiple valuation of landscape attributes

Abstract

Environmental valuation can be seen as a process which evolves as individuals reflect on their consumption experience. In this paper we consider how environmental values could change as the subject has reached the end of the consumption process. A split sample comparison is conducted for estimating the values tourists give to a set of landscape attributes. The first subsample was taken on-site as subjects were on a tour contemplating the landscape of the island of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands). The second subsample was contacted at the airport when individuals were about to leave the tourist enclave. Since landscapes are complex environmental goods, we utilize and compare a multiple contingent valuation (CV) approach with the stated preference approach of contingent ranking. The results show that the influence of the consumption experience depends on the valuation method and the consideration of interaction effects in the model. The valuation functions were not stable across both sites for most of the models considered and some of the attributes changed their values between the two points of the consumption process. Interaction effects were more relevant with the contingent ranking model, suggesting that CV is a more limited approach in a context of multiple valuation. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.