Drink our wine and safe our landscape! A case study from Austria

The Nature Park Südsteiermark in the southern part of Austria is characterized by a high biodiversity and landscape beauty. Many tourists enjoy the hilly landscape and the unique mixture of small vineyards, diverse meadows,... [ view full abstract ]

The Nature Park Südsteiermark in the southern part of Austria is characterized by a high biodiversity and landscape beauty. Many tourists enjoy the hilly landscape and the unique mixture of small vineyards, diverse meadows, old apple trees and forests. However this so-called "Austrian Toscana" is changing and losing its diversity. The ongoing extension of vineyards and forests change the landscape and reduce its value for both biodiversity and tourism. This landscape change will affect tourism significantly in the future. In order to ensure the required landscape management the regional government discussed the opportunity get additional funding by a "landscape tax" paid by the tourists.
A representative survey of German and Austrian tourists, which are the main target group of this region, was started to learn more about the willingness to pay and the key criteria of the respective destination choice.
The presentation will show the main findings of that online survey with an integrated choice experiment.
The majority of tourists is willing to pay at least 0.50€ per day for maintaining the beautiful landscape character. However we found significant differences between segments. The integration of pictures into the choice experiment reveals that the landscape character is of high relevance for destination choice. A further loss of diversity would be negative.