Assessment of environmental performance in recreational areas with the consideration of assimilation potential

Abstract

Externalities are a significant feature for recreational tourism. The increase in the specificity of the resource and its significance for the territory may be an additional factor in lowering the requirements for the effective implementation of Coase’s idea to solve the problem of externalities. Tourist recreational areas can be an ideal object for implementing Coase’s idea of reducing externalities. Given the assessment of environmental quality with the consideration of assimilation potential, it is possible to describe the additional value of changing the volume of environmental pollution for the economic system in the recreational area. The increasing importance of other factors for tourist recreational activities can be factored into the proposed dependency by developing ideas of the assimilation potential of the territory. An approach is proposed for assessing the utility of environmental protection activities in a recreational tourist area which is based on the consideration of changes in the recreational capacities of natural environment and the consequences thereof for the economic system of the territory. The proposed indicator of utility with an adequate assessment of the costs of implementing a project better reflects the cost-effectiveness and results of environmental protection.