Tourists’ Willingness to Donate to Improve Local Water Services: A Contingent Valuation Study from San Andrés Island, Colombia

Intense tourism imposes substantial pressure on local water resources to meet the growing demand for potable water. In many tourist destinations, this has led to frequent and prolonged interruptions of water services for locals. In this study, we used the contingent valuation (CV) method to study whether tourists are willing to donate to improve local water services in San Andrés Island, Colombia. We found that 43.8% of sampled tourists were willing to donate the amount proposed in our CV scenario, depending on their nationality and intention to return to the island. Additionally, 30% of the respondents who indicated that they would not be willing to contribute cited perceived corruption as the main reason. We estimated that the median tourist would donate US$6.11. These results suggest that tourist donations can be a complementary funding source to improve local water services in tourist destinations, including those areas that primarily receive domestic visitors.