Cruise Tourism and Sustainable Urban Mobility: A Contingent Valuation Study of Zadar, Croatia

The concentration of tourist flows along short urban links caused by cruise stops in medium-sized Mediterranean ports exacerbates traffic and localized environmental externalities. This study evaluates the willingness to pay (WTP) of cruise passengers for an electric tram that would connect the Gaženica Port with Zadar’s historic center, an intervention designed to cut travel time and reduce on-street congestion and emissions. Over the course of two seasons, a two-wave, two-site, in-person survey was conducted at the port and in the city center. The instrument adopts a double-bounded dichotomous choice (DBDC) contingent valuation design with randomized starting bids that were calibrated using a pre-test that benchmarked prevailing transport pricing. Primary WTP estimates are obtained from a binary choice model with socio-demographic and environmental covariates; whereby inference relies on cluster-robust errors. Robustness is assessed through three complementary checks that do not require additional data: (i) a bivariate specification to account for within-respondent correlation between first and follow-up bids; (ii) Turnbull nonparametric bounds for the interval-censored WTP distribution; and (iii) starting-point tests using split-sample estimation and bid-set indicators. A spike adjustment based on “no–no at the lowest bid” responses is explored where appropriate. Beyond its methodological contribution, this research advances the sustainable tourism development discourse by quantifying visitors’ financial support for low-emission urban mobility infrastructure that mitigates environmental stresses while preserving residential life quality. The results integrate cruise tourist management with the more general goals of resilient and sustainable urban destinations by offering a decision-ready value input for port-city mobility planning in historic Mediterranean centers.