An estimate of the value of ecotourism management in Cambodia: Case study on dolphin ecotourism development and management in Kratie Province

Ecotourism is very diverse and represents a considerable economic value to rural livelihoods in Cambodia. The ecotourism sector in Cambodia has been growing at a rate of 20-30% per year, making it one of the country's strongest growth sectors and tourism development is high on the Royal Government of Cambodia's priorities. Moreover, Cambodia has a number of potential ecotourism destinations, especially in the eastern part of Cambodia. Most visitors to Cambodia visit nearby Angkor Wat from a base at Siem Reap and it is estimated that 20 percent of these tourists also visit ecotourism sites in Cambodia during their stay. The conditional logit model as an experimental method was used to establish the marginal utility of each attribute for ecotourism development and management. It is also used to estimate the payment of each activity for improving the developing of dolphin ecotourism in this area in the future. Results reveal that almost 94 percent of local communities were willing to pay the fee for improving ecotourism management and only 6 percent have rejected the payment because they feel they did not gain benefit from the managing of ecotourism. All attributes were found to be statistically significant at 1 and 5 percent except increasing dolphin population, meaning that local communities feel it is costly to maintain the population of this critically endangered species. The marginal willingness to pay of dolphin ecotourism development and management shows that they are willing to pay and accept more in order to increase tourist numbers followed by decreasing illegal activities in the ecotourism development areas. Hence, it can be stated that the local community wants to generate more income from the managing and developing of ecotourism in their communities and these results should contribute to the making of decisions by stakeholders in the community in defining a new policy to be implemented by considering the importance of biodiversity and culture before implementing any activities.