Valuing tourism in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area

The Wet Tropics World Heritage Area is an important resource for the Tropical North Queensland (TNQ) region's tourism industry. The most recent visitor studies conducted in the WTWHA were in 200112002 and the latest estimated economic values were reported in 1997. At the time, the total gross expenditure of visitors to the area was then estimated at $443 million, and $753 million including the flow-on effects (multiplier) to the local economy. However, in a later evaluation of Queensland's protected areas, which included the WTWHA, limitations in using the total economic value method of calculation were noted. Recently, Carlsen & Wood (2005) addressed some of these limitations on assessing the economic value of tourism in West Australian National Parks. These factors were reviewed and developed into the key aims of the current study, which were to provide an overview of the profile of rainforest visitors in the WTWHA and to produce current estimates of the economic value of the WTWHA. Overall, the WTWHA visitors indicated a strong association to nature-based tourism reflected in their motives to visit the region, the levels of importance placed on visiting natural locations, the number of WTWHA locations visited and the time they spent at the locations