Preferences of Residents Towards Development and Management Attributes of Protected Area: A Discrete Choice Experiment

The tourism sector is a major source of income for many indigenous communities that live in and around protected areas; however, such destinations still face human-wildlife conflicts that often negatively impact the tourism sector. This study uses a conjoint choice experiment to evaluate trade-offs that locals make when deciding between destination attributes that support the tourism sector and other development and management attributes. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) consisting of five attributes was administered to residents of Narok County, Kenya. We used mixed logit models to estimate the utilities of each attribute and latent class analysis (LCA) to identify potential classes of residents with distinct patterns of similar preferences under different development and management policy options. Results show that an increase in tourist numbers was the most desired level, while land-use restriction on livestock grazing was the least desired. Other significant interactions between development attributes were observed.