Valuation of tourism environmental attributes in the Canary Islands

Abstract

The Canary Islands represent a set of mass market tourist destinations evolving in the last decades towards a predominant sun and beach tourism product. In this process environmental resources have played a role in attracting tourism demand, but have also been subject to pressure and transformation. This paper presents results on the valuation of some environmental assets utilized in the tourism industry of the Canary Islands. It is shown that these assets are valuable for the tourism industry in economic terms, and therefore policy measures undertaken to protect and enhance these values might have contributed to a more sustainable tourist product in the long run.