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Biodiversity and infrastructure interact to drive tourism to and within Costa Rica.

ABSTRACT: SignificanceTourism accounts for roughly 10% of global gross domestic product, with nature-based tourism its fastest-growing sector in the past 10 years. Nature-based tourism can theoretically contribute to local and sustainable development by creating attractive livelihoods that support biodiversity conservation, but whether tourists prefer to visit more biodiverse destinations is poorly understood. We examine this question in Costa Rica and find that more biodiverse places tend indeed to attract more tourists, especially where there is infrastructure that makes these places more accessible. Safeguarding terrestrial biodiversity is critical to preserving the substantial economic benefits that countries derive from tourism. Investments in both biodiversity conservation and infrastructure are needed to allow biodiverse countries to rely on tourism for their sustainable development.

SUBMITTER: Echeverri A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8931240 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Biodiversity and infrastructure interact to drive tourism to and within Costa Rica.

Echeverri Alejandra A Smith Jeffrey R JR MacArthur-Waltz Dylan D Lauck Katherine S KS Anderson Christopher B CB Monge Vargas Rafael R Alvarado Quesada Irene I Wood Spencer A SA Chaplin-Kramer Rebecca R Daily Gretchen C GC

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20220304 11

SignificanceTourism accounts for roughly 10% of global gross domestic product, with nature-based tourism its fastest-growing sector in the past 10 years. Nature-based tourism can theoretically contribute to local and sustainable development by creating attractive livelihoods that support biodiversity conservation, but whether tourists prefer to visit more biodiverse destinations is poorly understood. We examine this question in Costa Rica and find that more biodiverse places tend indeed to attra ...[more]

PMID: 35245152

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Dataset Information

Biodiversity and infrastructure interact to drive tourism to and within Costa Rica.

Publications

Biodiversity and infrastructure interact to drive tourism to and within Costa Rica.

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