Coastal landscape and the hedonic price of accommodation

The impact of climate change on tourism has been examined in terms of changes in a destination's climate; the impact of ancillary effects such as sea-level rise has been neglected. In this study the role that coastal and other landscape features have on the attractiveness of tourist destinations is examined using the hedonic price technique. The average price of accommodation in the coastal districts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany is explained using landscape and other characteristics of these districts. As parts of the coastline of Schleswig-Holstein are protected by dikes, adaptation measures as well as natural coastal features are represented in the dataset. The analysis shows that an increase in the length of dikes in a given district would result in a reduction in the average price of accommodation. An increase in the length of open coast results in an increase in the average price of accommodation. For two districts, the impact of sea-level rise is examined through a comparison of the costs of different coastal protection measures compared to the resulting changes in revenue from accommodation. The costs of dike construction along with the effect of reduced accommodation prices favour the use of beach nourishment to protect the coast. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.