Shark Bay Research Paper

Methods
Study site
Shark Bay is an embayment approximately 13,000 km2 in area and located on the Peron Peninsula on the West Coast of Australia, approximately 850 km from Perth. In 1991 Shark Bay was assigned World Heritage status (Smith, Lee & Newsome, 2006). Relatively few and low impact recreational activities are available to visitors in Shark Bay, with only two boats operating wildlife-viewing tours near Monkey Mia (Burgin & Hardiman, 2015). Studies estimate that Monkey Mia alone comprises 20–42% of the local Shark Bay economy (Stoeckl, Smith, Newsome, et al., 2005). Researchers have noted that much of the current marketing approach focuses on the dolphin experience only, with few other features of the area being promoted or marketed. This is something local tourist operators have expressed concern about previously (Smith,
As we use the values of attributes to estimate their relative importance and ranks, rather than to make monetary estimations, this does not necessarily pose a problem in this study. Limits to the amount of information respondents can handle in a choice set require a consideration of learning and fatigue effects in choice models, as multiple overly complex choices between attributes and levels can result in inconsistent responses and increase random errors (Hanley, Mourato & Wright, 2001). Here, we tried to alleviate this issue by limiting the number of attributes in each choice set and presenting each respondent with only four choice sets of the 16 in the design. Fatigue effects, in general, are a challenge in surveys, with respondents making choices less carefully as time progresses. To avoid this, we ordered questions according to their importance and conducted surveys directly after the dolphin interaction, when tourists were less likely to be interrupted, and could recount and relate to their immediate