Marine protected areas for dive tourism

Area of Science:

• Marine biology
• Conservation science
• Tourism economics

Background:

• Marine and coastal tourism offer significant economic benefits, often exceeding those from fisheries.
• Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are known to enhance biodiversity and fisheries, but their direct tourism economic impacts are not fully understood.
• Recreational scuba diving is a major marine tourism activity with substantial economic implications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate global demand for recreational scuba dive tourism.
• To map the global distribution and protection status of marine dive sites.
• To model the economic gains from upgrading unprotected dive sites to fully protected MPAs.

Main Methods:

• Global estimation of recreational scuba dive tourism demand.
• Mapping of marine dive sites and their protection status worldwide.
• Development of a bioeconomic model to assess revenue from MPA designation.

Main Results:

• Approximately 33.1 million scuba dives occur globally each year, with 70% within MPAs.
• Only 15% of dive sites within MPAs are highly or fully protected.
• Designating all unprotected dive sites as MPAs could generate an additional US$2 billion annually in direct tourism revenue.

Conclusions:

• Expanding MPAs to include all unprotected dive sites offers a significant opportunity to enhance marine conservation and boost economies.
• This strategy would improve fish biomass and biodiversity.
• Dive tourism revenue potential is substantial, particularly for developing countries where 62% of diving occurs, supporting both conservation and local livelihoods.