WeChat - using social media for the assessment of tourist preferences for environmental improvements in China

Environmental valuation studies with tourists have been very popular already over a long period of time. Tourists are an important stakeholder group with respect to the decision if some environmental project in a tourist region should be realized or not. Typically such studies are organized as face-to-face surveys conducted in the respective vacation areas. Tourists are asked their willingness to pay (e.g. in terms of higher entrance fees for certain amenities on site or a mark-up on accommodation prices etc.) for the implementation of an environmental project or preservation measure in that area. Based on theoretical considerations we argue that in the special case of tourist surveys internet-based surveys are preferable to face-to-face surveys under validity aspects as well as under the aspect of the representativeness of the survey results. Based on an empirical valuation study we conducted in Southwest China we illustrate the practical problems arising in the context of internet surveys in developing or threshold countries.