Author(s)

P. Amrusch

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of cultural goods on the housing market considering environmental factors related to tourism in an Italian city. In the first section, the willingness to pay for cultural goods is estimated by using the hedonic pricing model for the commercial property (tourism). In this regression, the link between environmental factors and the number of tourists is studied, which in turn quantifies the prospects for ‘sustainable’ or at least environmentally friendly tourism. On the basis of the results further questions are posed, e.g., whether tourism increases social welfare for local residents – also in conjunction with public policy. Keywords: sustainable tourism, marginal willingness to pay for natural heritage, cultural goods, public services, hedonic model, tourism and social welfare, public policy making, urban transport system. 1 Introduction Sustainable tourism is a broad and widely interconnected field capturing, i.e., social, economic, environmental, socio-cultural dimensions, mainly to be addressed locally and at the national level, by the public and private sector (see, e.g., sustainable tourism indicators are published by the WTO [1]). A recent study published by the National Austrian Tourist Office (Österreich Werbung) claims that 10% of the tourists are disposed to pay for sustainable tourism at the expense of their quality of live [2]. However, in many circumstances, environmentally friendly behaviour does not necessarily incur additional costs for tourists, in particular, when sustainable tourism is promoted at the local level, e.g., by investments in an efficient transport system.

Keywords

sustainable tourism, marginal willingness to pay for natural heritage, cultural goods, public services, hedonic model, tourism and social welfare, public policy making, urban transport system.