Data pertaining to the power sector, tourism, freight shipping and 
transportation, and production and consumption patterns.

economy-industry

Economy & Industry

Data covering the marine environment, including fisheries, coral reef  health, ocean chemistry, and coastal zones.

oceans-seas-coasts

Oceans, Seas, & Coasts

### Overview  
  
The Coral Reef Tourism Value dataset estimates the annual economic value of coral reefs to the tourism sector. These values reflect the individual and combined value of on-reef and reef-adjacent tourism. The former includes recreational diving and snorkelling, while the latter encompasses the provision of calm waters, coral sand beaches, views and seafood. Economic value (in 2013 U.S. dollars) is estimated around the globe for every 500 meter (m) grid cell containing reefs with tourism activity, based on data from approximately 2005 through 2012.

  
  
Coral reef tourism is a critical, undervalued ecosystem service. Coral reefs attract foreign and domestic visitors and generate revenue, including foreign exchange earnings, in over 100 countries and territories. Maps of value assigned to specific coral reef locations show considerable spatial variability across distances of just a few kilometers (km). About 30% of the world's reefs are of value to the tourism sector—the remainder being too remote for tourism—with an estimated total value of nearly $36 billion, or over 9% of _all_ coastal tourism value in the relevant countries. Understanding the full value of coral reefs to tourism, and the spatial distribution of these values, provides an important incentive for sustainable reef management. 

  
  
The dataset was created by researchers from The Nature Conservancy (TNC), World Resources Institute (WRI), the University of Washington (UWash), and the University of Cambridge (Cambridge).
  
  
### Methodology  
  
The value of coral reef tourism was explored using metrics of monetary value (i.e., expenditures) and visitor numbers (specifically, tourist trip equivalents: a term used to account for the fact that many of the statistics are built up from fractions of total arrivals, acknowledging that reefs are only part of most destination choices). Two components of coral reef tourism were distinguished: on-reef or _in situ_ values are derived from direct non-extractive reef uses including diving, snorkelling and glass-bottom boat tours; reef-adjacent or _ex situ_ values are not derived from in-water activities, but are indirectly linked to the presence of nearby reefs. The latter may include the role of reefs in generating clear calm waters and beach sand, outstanding views, fresh seafood and even their widespread use in advertising, all of which help to draw people to coral reef regions.

  
  
Tourism was examined in the over 100 jurisdictions (countries and territories) around the world which have coral reefs. National statistics on travel and tourism for each jurisdiction were used as initial inputs. “Big data” from commercial, crowdsourced, and social media platforms were then used to prorate and spatially distribute the tourism expenditure and visitation to non-urban areas that could reasonably be linked to coral reefs. Paired, independent datasets were used to strengthen the robustness of the model, and the outputs were cross-referenced to existing studies. Tourism values were estimated as a proportion of the total visits and spending by coastal tourists within 30 km of reefs (excluding urban areas). On-reef values were based on the relative abundance of dive-shops and underwater photos in different countries and territories, which determined the proportion of that local coastal spending that was attributed to reefs. Reef-adjacent values were estimated as a fixed 10% of total local tourism expenditure. Finally, these tourism values were linked back and assigned to the reefs that were considered to be generating these values.

  
  
For the full documentation, please see the source [methodology](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X17300635).
  
  
### Additional Information  
  
Resource Watch shows only a subset of the dataset. This methodology also yielded estimates of on-reef, reef-adjacent, and total "tourist trip equivalents." For access to the full dataset and additional information, click on the “Learn more” button.
  
  
### Visualizing the Data  
  
Our team reformatted this dataset before displaying it on Resource Watch. See the documentation on how Resource Watch processed the data on [Github](https://github.com/resource-watch/data-pre-processing/blob/master/ocn_012_coral_reef_tourism_value/).  
  
### Disclaimer  
  
Excerpts of this description page were taken from the source metadata.

Ocean Watch

Coral Reef Tourism Value

2012 Annual Value of Reef-Adjacent Coral Tourism (2013 USD/km²)

2012 Annual Value of On-Reef Coral Tourism (2013 USD/km²)

2012 Annual Value of Coral Reef Tourism (2013 USD/km²)