Nature-based tourism can contribute to local and sustainable development by creating attractive livelihoods supporting biodiversity conservation. The degree to which biodiversity drives tourism, relative to infrastructure, however, is poorly understood.
This study analyzed patterns of tourism in Costa Rican protected areas and
the country as a whole by examining the role of species richness derived from GBIF-mediated occurrences, as well as infrastructure such as hotel density and distance to roads and water.
To quantify tourism in time and space, the authors used numbers of eBird checklists and Flickr photos posted online as proxies of bird watching and general tourism, respectively. Creating spatially explicit models with these as response variables, they compared the ability of biodiversity and infrastructure in predicting levels of tourism.
At all scales, accessibility was the main driver of tourism in general with distance to roads and hotel density being the most important predictors. Although modest compared to infrastructure, bird richness, particularly that of threatened and endemic species, had a positive effect on both birdwatching and general tourism.
Overall, the results suggested that while access to roads and hotels are the most important driver, tourism is higher in places with both good access and high biodiversity. Future investments aimed at increasing economic benefits from tourism should prioritize safeguarding biodiversity in addition to improving infrastructure.