Dependence analysis of tourism activities on natural site management policies[Dépendance des activités touristiques aux politiques de gestion de sites naturels]

Management policies of natural site have direct effects on the tourism activities and indirect or induced effects on the other local activities. A method initially created in industrial economics, the dependence method, has been revisited to account for the links between landscape, firms and regional development in the short and long term in a way that is both flexible and relatively accurate. The dependence method, used in this paper is applied to estimate the effects of a public policy (here for landscape). It is built thanks to the double contributions of the Economic Base Theory and Transaction Costs Theory. Based on surveys from tourist accommodation providers located in the Chaîne des Puys - Limagne Fault site (France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region), we found a variable dependence of accommodation providers on management policies: it is rather strong in the short term (on sales, visitor numbers, location of expenditure) or geographically (location of activity) and weak in the medium and long terms (diversity of offer, adaptability, evolution of activity); the dependence is variable according to the type of accommodation (more marked for outdoor accommodation). The management policies effect on employment could be accurately estimated due to the quality of the dependence method for the 19 establishments in the sample. They generated 5.2 FTE. For all the companies in the study area, this represents 12.1 FTE, or on average about a quarter of the FTE per establishment. This influence of landscape policies on local employment is significant, especially for establishments of limited size whose economic viability is fragile. In rural areas with many attractive natural sites, the management policies of natural sites must therefore be better taken into account to stimulate regional development.