Consumer and producer surpluses in tourism

Abstract

The concepts of consumer and producer surpluses are explained; one aspect of a socially and economically desirable project is that surpluses outweigh losses (the two not needing to arise in the same group, and different weightings may be used). For economists, tourism is unusual in that the consumers gaining (or losing) a surplus include non-residents. Restrictive assumptions made at the outset are relaxed in later examples.