How to account for nature-based tourism in Europe. An operational proposal

Europe is a leader in the tourism sector, with half of the world's international arrivals in 2018. Nowadays tourism activities related to the enjoyment of nature, Nature-based tourism (NBT), are among the main tourism segments worldwide. NBT represents both a challenge and an opportunity. In fact, on the one hand it contributes to creating new markets and spurring job growth, especially for small businesses and on the other hand it might impact the environment and local communities. What's more it is extremely difficult to quantify the role of nature in traditional economic accounting. In this context, the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) covers this gap by reporting information not included in the traditional system of economic accounts. In this study we propose a SEEA EA compliant methodology to quantify the contribution of nature to the tourism sector. The methodology is based on ecosystem services biophysical mapping already experimented in Europe, developed in accordance with the SEEA EA logic chain. The actual flow of service was computed by allocating the overnight stays according to the share of accessible nature-based recreation opportunities in each CLC Level1 land type. Main users/beneficiaries are accommodations (tertiary sector). In order to investigate the validity of the method and the most efficient scale of analysis the approach was implemented using data gathered at the national, regional, provincial and local level.

ZULIAN Grazia;  LA NOTTE Alessandra; 

2022-12-05

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

JRC129737

2367-8194 (online),   

https://oneecosystem.pensoft.net/article/89312/,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC129737,   

10.3897/oneeco.7.e89312 (online),