The impacts of location and attributes of protected natural areas on hotel prices: implications for sustainable tourism development

This study analyses the economic effects of the protected natural areas and discusses the implications for public and private sector organisations involved in nature-based tourism development. To do so, we apply the Hedonic pricing method to address the variations of hotel prices with regard to the impacts of location and other proposed site characteristics, i.e. attributes of National Park (NP) Plitvice Lakes. The research results reveal a linkage between unique environmental and site-specific attributes and hotel rates. Hotels located close to the territory of the NP charge premium prices, whereas increasing distance from the territory of NP reduces the positive impact. This distance decay effect builds on hotels' expectations regarding the opportunities for taking advantage of the NP. We argue that protected areas (PAs) are constituents of the integrated tourism product, influencing the price of the complementing tourism services, visitors satisfaction, and destinations competitiveness. The study places value on non-traded resources, which is often a prerequisite for acknowledging their importance and for the inauguration of policies promoting sustainable use. Thus, the findings have potentially significant implications for the design of pricing systems for hotels and accommodation service providers, the development of governance and fiscal policies, and the creation of marketing strategies for tourism destinations.