Policymakers and tourism industry practitioners understand the obvious link between their livelihoods and the health of the territory’s reefs and beaches, though putting a dollar amount on something as intangible as the value of a healthy environment in the Virgin Islands isn’t easy.

But researchers at a Dutch university are currently trying to do exactly that.

“It’s to see how important, economically speaking, ecosystems are to the tourism industry and put an actual figure on it,” Gala Sipos, a graduate student in environmental economics, said of the research project “Economic valuation of the ecosystems in the BVI.”

As part of an internship for Amsterdam’s Vu University, Ms. Sipos has spent the last several weeks in the territory surveying cruise ship passengers, sailing vacationers and overnight visitors about their spending patterns, interests and what attracts them to the territory.

 

See the May 30, 2013 edition for full coverage.

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