The Economic Pitfalls and Barriers of the Sustainable Tourism Concept in the Case of National Parks

Abstract

It is often argued that national parks and other aspects of nature have general economic value. In saying this, the conclusion is drawn that this strong argument (economic value) can give an extra impetus to the protection possibilities of these parks. Sustainable tourism can be seen as an instrument to demonstrate this economic value. It cannot be denied that these statements are true at least in principle. The crucial question, however, is just how strong is the theoretical basis for such statements? To make clear why this is so a short overview is given of the possibilities and impossibilities of giving an economic value or a price to national parks. It can be concluded that nature and the environment are not well defined in economics; additionally the theoretical basis of value in economics is rather weak. This implies that the theoretical basis of the sustainable tourism concept cannot be stronger than the weak economic foundation. Does this mean that we do not have economic instruments to strengthen the position of national parks in the societal debate? This is not true, as can be seen from certain examples which are given. The general conclusion is that we have certain economic instruments to support the concept of sustainable tourism in national parks, but we have to be aware of the theoretical limitations of these concepts.