How Much Are Tourists Willing to Pay for Malaria Control? Evidence from a Contingent Valuation Study in Zanzibar

Abstract

Malaria disease remains one of the greatest challenges in Tanzania; costing lives,
households’ income and huge amount of public resources. This calls for a continued
effort to sustainably control the problem, requiring significant amount of financial
resources. The main sources of finance for previous efforts have been foreign
dominated. In this study we test a potential domestic source of income to finance the
efforts: tourist tax. We assess whether tourists visiting the country would be willing to
contribute some amounts of money to be set aside for malaria control in the country;
and estimate the exact marginal amount they are actually willing to contribute. The
rationale for this rests on the fact that tourists spend reasonably huge amounts of
money to protect themselves against mosquito bites (hence malaria) once in Tanzania
(direct benefit); and that this could also be considered as an altruistic giving (indirect
benefit). Results suggest that 76 percent of our sampled tourists are willing to
contribute for malaria control programs; with an average fee ranging from US$17-29
depending on the elicitation format.

Key words: malaria, contingent valuation method, willingness to pay
JEL Classification: G13, I1, H20, H51, Q51