The Economic Value of Water and Ecosystem Preservation

Table 3-4. Direct Travel Impacts by County
County
Total Direct
Spending
($000)
Visitor
Spending
($000)
Earnings
($000)
30
Employment
(Jobs)
Tax Receipts
Local
($000)
State
($000)
Aransas 65,600 65,600 18,940 1,090 1,290 3,710
Calhoun 23,610 23,610 7,250 400 360 1,380
Refugio 12,740 12,740 1,700 110 110 1,130
Source: Dean Runyen Associates (2004).
Winter Texans who come to the region can create a significant additional
demand for goods and services. In Port Aransas, approximately 4,000 Winter
Texans come to the city to stay for an average of 74 days, usually from the
northern U.S – outnumbering the 3,500 permanent residents of the town. Winter
Texans have usually reached the age of retirement, and due to this, the length of
their stay by far exceeds the average leisure stay of 2.3 days in the Coastal
Bend. They spend over $13 million in Port Aransas and often have friends and
family to visit, contributing an additional $2.5 million to the local economy.
Outdoor activities are a main attraction for 57 percent of Winter Texans and
many of them participate in ecotourism activities such as birdwatching. In total,
they spend $520,000 per year on entertainment in and around Port Aransas,
including ecotourism activities (Lee and Yoskowitz, 2004).
A study done by researchers at Texas A&M University quantified the
economic impacts of recreational activities and commercial fishing for the
Guadalupe Estuary. It found that water-based recreation such as boating,
recreational fishing, birding, swimming and other activities contributed $6.94
million in direct expenditures to the local economy, indicating an average
expenditure of $66.10 per person per day for recreation. Due to the methodology
used in that study (developed to provide consistency across all six Texas
estuaries), the study does not provide specific figures for different activities. It
was not possible to separate out the direct expenditures for consumptive and
non-consumptive uses so, it was not possible to estimate the value of nonconsumptive
uses of San Antonio Bay from this study (Tanyeri-Abur, Jones et al.,
1998).
3.4. Conclusions
Due to the lack of consistent and complete data, it is difficult to quantify the
economic impact of ecotourism on the San Antonio Bay region. Currently,
comprehensive data on the number of people that come to visit the region for
ecotourism purposes does not exist hampering the estimate of their economic