Assessing tourists' preferences for coastal land use management: Oyster farming and heritage

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of tourists' preferences concerning oyster farming in Arcachon Bay (France). Considering that heritage is an important aspect of oyster production and also a factor of sustainable territorial governance issues - as Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) supposes-, we set out to establish which forms of oyster farming tourists in this coastal area value. The choice experiment method is applied in order to analyse individual preferences. This method has been used extensively in research on environmental issues (such as landscape preferences) and multi-functionality of agriculture but until now has never been applied to oyster farming. By implementing a latent class logit model, it allows us to bring to light, in the Arcachon Bay area, the fact that the heterogeneity of tourists is important and needs to be taken into account by decision makers. Our results also highlight the fact that the amenity dimension is valued as much as the productive dimension of this industry, but differently, depending on the class of tourist concerned. These findings have implications for decision makers of this territory, who are faced with complex issues of coastal management and productive sector survival.