Alternative approaches to measuring the value of tourism in marine and coastal areas in ocean economy reporting

Marine and coastal tourism is often cited as one of the dominant sectors within many ocean economies in terms of economic contribution and number of persons employed. Despite this, discussion still arises around the definition of marine and coastal tourism in relation to the forms of activity to be included and the differences between them. Methods of valuing their economic contributions are important, not only, for accurate national accounting purposes and for international comparison but, also, for tourism planning, management and investment at national and regional levels. This paper is designed to contribute to ocean economy accounting by drawing on evidence for the Republic of Ireland that permits three different methods of valuing marine and coastal tourism to be compared and the relative merits of each to be assessed. Based on a range of criteria no one method is deemed superior. It is argued, however, that an output based NACE code approach might offer the best route to robust valuation given the comparability to the other industries in ocean economy reporting but that harmonised coastal tourism expenditure surveys could be used to get a more reliable estimate of the maritime component of the tourism related NACE activities.