Autor(es): Azevedo, António ; Freire, Francisco ; Silva, Luís ; Carapinha, Aurora ; Matos, Rute
Data: 2025
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/38091
Origem: Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora
Assunto(s): Walkways; Boardwalks; Cultural Ecosystems Services; Contigent Valuation; Willingness to pay for a ticket; Paiva River (Portugal); Mondego River (Portugal)
This paper presents the conclusions of an exploratory study conducted by an Associated Research Laboratory which aimed to fill a gap in research by empirically assessing the quality and economic value of the recreational cultural ecosystem services generated by two walkways/boardwalks in Portugal (MRW-Mondego River and PRW-Paiva River). A questionnaire applied to visitors at the entrances/exits of those linear walkways obtained 301 (MRW) and 188 (PRW) responses. In both case-studies, visitors rated high scores for walkways’ attributes and the overall satisfaction, which is positively correlated with willing to pay for a ticket to access the walkway (MRW- 4,56 euros and PRW- 6,31 euros respectively). The willingness to give a donation for the conservation or maintenance expenses of the walkways (MRW=7,56 euros; PRW=8,22 euros). This study also conducted a K-means cluster analysis only for Mondego RW sub-sample, that identified four different clusters: Cluster 1- (N=8) Older and heavy spenders, a small segment of male visitors that spend a high amount of money during the more than two days they stay in the region; Cluster 2- (N=35) Women heavy donators, composed mainly by women with high purchase power who are willing to donate an higher amount for the conservation of the walkway; Cluster 3- (N=62)- Average visitor whose members have a profile showing characteristics similar to the mean scores of the sample; and Cluster 4- (N=189) Younger women low spenders, that plan their journey avoiding all the consumption moments and spending the lowest amount as possible (about 24 euros); Based on the proposed theoretical framework and on the claims shared by visitors on the survey, this paper provides some recommendations for public decision-makers.
