Although fairness is a dominant concern in the current debate on protected area recreation fees, various conceptualizations of what constitutes fairness exist. This presents a challenge for protected area management as it becomes difficult to develop a universally acceptable fee structure and policy that meet different stakeholders, thereby undermining the financial sustainability of protected areas. The purpose of this study is to understand how visitors define fairness in the context of a national park recreation fees, with the goal to provide a framework that can guide protected area management in addressing the recreation fee fairness challenge. Analysis of 40 semi-structured interviews with visitors to Indiana Dunes National Park (USA) and residents of surrounding communities found that statements about fairness of recreation fees reflected plural, competing and incompatible moral philosophies (egoism, egalitarianism, Rawlsian, utilitarianism, and particularism) and comparative bases (customary practices and consumption norms). More importantly, most participants wrestled with a strong sense of ambivalence towards fees. The findings of this study provide new insights into the longstanding disagreement over protected area recreation fees by extending the existing moral philosophy framework conceptualizing visitor fairness perceptions and revealing the pluralistic nature of visitors’ moral perspectives.

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道德哲学在塑造游客对娱乐费用的公平认知中的作用：美国印第安纳沙丘国家公园的案例研究

尽管公平是当前关于保护区游憩费用的争论中的一个主要问题，但对于公平的构成存在各种不同的概念。这给保护区管理带来了挑战，因为很难制定出能够满足不同利益相关者的普遍接受的收费结构和政策，从而破坏了保护区的财务可持续性。本研究的目的是了解游客如何在国家公园游乐费用的背景下定义公平性，目的是提供一个框架来指导保护区管理解决游乐费用公平性挑战。对美国印第安纳沙丘国家公园游客和周边社区居民进行的 40 次半结构化访谈的分析发现，有关娱乐费用公平性的陈述反映了多元化、竞争性和不相容的道德哲学（利己主义、平等主义、罗尔斯主义、功利主义和特殊主义）和比较基础（习惯做法和消费规范）。更重要的是，大多数参与者都对费用抱有强烈的矛盾心理。本研究的结果通过扩展现有的道德哲学框架，将游客的公平观念概念化，并揭示游客道德观点的多元化本质，为长期以来关于保护区游乐费用的分歧提供了新的见解。