Tourism Economic Model for Protected Areas - TEMPA

Protected areas (PAs) may contribute significantly to local economies through trip-related visitor spending on goods and services, indirect supply-chain spending, economic activity induced by the presence of the PA, and park operations. However, in general, PA agencies are more accustomed to financial reports which deal only with direct income and costs, while failing to consider the wider scope of monetary value generated by PAs for local, and the larger provincial and national economies.

An analysis of the economic impact of tourism was developed to measure visitor spending around PAs in Brazil. The initiative reinforced that economic impacts of tourism influence directly the PAs, as well as indirectly other businesses and the local communities, generating greater economic benefits for local communities that have a higher household dependency on the surrounding natural resources. As part of a larger effort to assess the socio-economic impacts of GEF-funded Protected Areas, the Tourism Economic Model for Protected Areas (TEMPA) was developed to help guide project managers and others stakeholders of developing countries in the collection, analysis and display of tourism spending data using an easy to use spreadsheet-based tool, which is also provided. Normally these analysis have been done only by economists consultants hired to develop the studies. Our proposal is to offer a model that can be used by the park managers and other stakeholders that are working in the field normally with budget and staff restrictions.

Results in Brazil identified that each dollar invested in the PA system produced $7 in economic benefits. In 2017, the 10.7 million visitors spent about $530 million on local communities around PAs. The total contribution of these expenditures was around 80,000 jobs, $583 million in income, $822 million in aggregated value to GDP, and $2.2 billion in sales. A total of $240 million in taxes was generated.