Consumer surplus and macro valuation of tourism projects

There cannot be a tourism industry without projects. These projects can take different forms, such as development of attractions, accommodation, entertainment, transport, new resorts, congress centre, events, ski infrastructure, etc.. They all involve considerable investment. This paper focuses on five topics. First, it focuses on the nature of investment appraisal and explores the difference between micro and macro approaches. Secondly, attention is paid to externalities in tourism. Indeed many projects belong to the general tourism infrastructure, and the benefi ts do not only accrue to the paymaster, who may not consider the negative effects. In other words, externalities must be taken into account. A third section deals with the identifi cation of cost and benefit items or the cost-benefit scheme. Environmental costs are an important part of the scheme.