Research Terms
Agricultural Economics Agricultural Policy Forest Economics Natural Resources Policy Water Policy Parks and Recreation Management Tourism and Travel Econometrics Land Economics Microeconomics
Keywords
Agricultural Economics Climate Resilience Coastal Resilience Disaster Resilience Disaster Studies Econometrics Economics And Climate Change Environmental Economics Natural Areas Management Natural Disasters Natural Resource Management Regenerative Tourism Secondary Data Analysis Stata Statistical Analysis Statistical Modeling Statistics In Social Sciences Survey Data Analysis Survey Methods Tourism Statistics
Industries
Harmful algae blooms (HABs) occur in water bodies throughout the globe and can have multi-faceted impacts on tourism. However, little is known of the magnitude of economic losses to the tourism sector as a result of HABs. There is limited understanding of the empirical relationships between HAB intensity and duration, and the effects of this phenomenon on the tourism sector. This presentation is based in the state of Florida, USA, a notable sun, sand, and sea destination in the western hemisphere, where blooms of a marine harmful algae are a recurrent threat to coastal tourism. The empirical framework is based on a month and county-level panel database that combines sales by tourism-related businesses with observations from the official HAB surveillance system of the state of Florida. We use time and space fixed-effects regressions to estimate the loss in tourism revenue associated with one additional day of red tide. Results indicate that impacts of HABs on tourism do not follow a linear pattern with increasing HAB concentrations, but rather appear to follow an inverted-U pattern. In other words, higher concentrations of the HAB organism do not necessarily imply higher economic losses, suggesting that the impacts of HABs on tourism are not driven solely by the biophysical element of cell density. Rather, these impacts appear to be mediated and amplified by human dimensions. The loss to tourism-related businesses due to the 2018 Florida red tide bloom was estimated to be $2.7 billion USD, which implies that HABs and their impact on tourism can be considered as a potential ‘billion-dollar’ disaster.
Subject Areas:
Audience:
Adults
Duration:
1 hour or less
Fee:
Expenses Only
The current geologic era—the Anthropocene—is defined by human-driven transformation of landscapes and seascapes that has profoundly altered Earth’s climate and other life-support systems. This presentation advocates for a landscape-scale regenerative tourism management strategy aimed at transforming coastal destinations into carbon sinks (meaning they sequester more carbon than they release). Specifically, coastal destinations can transform product offerings into a network of restoration projects that collectively seek the landscape-scale restoration of blue carbon ecosystems such as marshes, mangroves, and seagrass meadows. Restoration of blue-carbon ecosystems is a cost-effective way to mitigate the effects of climate change. Tourism has potential to overcome obstacles in large-scale restoration of blue carbon ecosystems and can play a foundational role by providing a long-term presence at restoration sites, logistical and human resources, and a business model dependent on restored ecosystems.
Subject Areas:
Keywords:
Audience:
Adults
Duration:
1 hour or less
Fee:
Expenses Only
Year: | 2021 |
Link Address: | https://youtu.be/yEIijYPKN7I?si=sHdL3LsR2iBo8JTy |
Keywords: | harmful algae blooms; economic impacts; social impacts; Florida red tide |
Source: | upload |
Duration: | 20:57 |
National Center for Integrated Coastal Research
Director |
Graham Worthy |
Phone | 407-823-2000 |
Website | https://coastal.ucf.edu/ |
Mission | The mission of UCF Coastal is to:
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