ICZM perception: the case-study of sunbathing establishment managers in Riccione and Misano Adriatico (Italy)

The results of a Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) survey by questionnaire carried out in 2007 in the Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy) are presented in this paper. Since in the future in this region private stakeholders could be asked to contribute in some way to beach defence from erosion, aims of this survey are to collect information on preferences on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) about sunbathing establishment managers, and to estimate their willingness to contribute to beach defence in money terms or by directly doing annual beach maintenance works. The coastal resorts of Riccione and Misano Adriatico in this region are chosen as case-study. In these sites the beach is under erosion and needs to be artificially defended through nourishment. All sunbathing establishment managers of the beach area under erosion were interviewed. Results show that a non-negligible number of respondents are willing to contribute in some way to the defence of this beach from erosion, and that more dissemination of information on ICZM is needed.