Danube Rivers Morphology and Revitalization - DANUBEPARKS

ii. Tourism attractiveness – of the Seychelles is based upon the naturalbeauty of the island, its friendly people and personal security. This is animportant criterion in addressing the issue of pollution and other damagesrelated to the construction and operation of a hotel (Walker et al., 1999). Climatechange and severe beach erosion may also reduce the attractiveness of tourismareas. This is considered as a linguistic variable.iii. Tourism intensity rate – encapsulates the overall pressure brought bytourism to the coastal zone. It is measured as tourist density in the coastalzone, according to Harrison (1992). It is computed as the number of visitorsper capita and per square kilometre of total or arable land area.Economic Criteria:i. GDP – represents the total value of all goods and services produced bythe economy in a n y g i v e n year. Most expenditure by tourists is regardedas consumption spending, and imports that are consumed by the tourist’sresults in leakage. Bull (1995:125) lists the factors that determines tourismsrole in GDP. The data was obtained from the Seychelles Statistical Abstracts(MISD, 2004).ii. Total E c o n o m i c Value ( Biodiversity) -the a b s o l u t e value o fecol ogi cal services, forests, protected areas and other plant and animalproducts.iii. Recreational Benefits (coastal/marine) - This is calculated from welfaregains in terms of their consumer surplus (WTP), expenditures related tocoastal and marine activities, indirect expenditures (travel & accommodation),and the multiplier effect on expenditures.Social Criteria:i. Precautionary Principle – Current thinking is clearly dominated by the ‘waitand-see’principle rather than the precautionary approach, which call for users todemonstrate that their actions are not harmful to the marine environment beforethey engage in any form of activity (Earl, 1992). This criterion also incorporateseffective implementation of EIA tools and decision-making. This criterion isconsidered as a linguistic variable.ii. Conflict resolution mechanisms – As a linguistic variable it is important toassess whether such alternatives will permit effective conflict resolutionmechanisms. For example, is it considered that a strong conservation approach49