VISITORS' INTENTION TO VISIT WORLD CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SUZHOU,CHINA

This article attempts to study Chinese visitors' intention to visit world cultural heritage sites in the framework of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), with the additional constructs of past experience and cultural tour involvement. The survey data were collected by a self‐administrated questionnaire in Suzhou, which is one of the cities with world cultural heritage sites in China. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the research model and hypotheses. The result shows that perceived control, past experience, and cultural tour involvement, but not attitude and subjective norms, are valid predictor constructs for visitors' intention to visit a world cultural heritage site within the next 12 months. The findings have implications for predicting heritage tourism.     

Consumer laundry practices in Germany

Sustainability is a guiding principle for a responsible, future‐oriented 21st century lifestyle and this already begins in private households with the daily household tasks. Approximately 25% of an average household's electricity consumption is required to do the laundry and dishwashing – 5% alone is for washing clothes with a corresponding energy consumption of 6 billion kilowatt hours. In addition, 600 000 tonnes of detergent and 330 million cubic metres of water are used for textile care in Germany. These figures provide the rationale for the scientific study of current practices of using washing machines and for a resulting estimate of the latent energy‐saving potential in German households. In the context of the in‐home study presented here, 236 private households throughout Germany were studied with respect to their washing practices and existing knowledge about topics on the sustainable, energy‐saving use of their washing machines. Overall, across all households 2867 wash cycles were individually recorded and subsequently analysed over a 4‐week period. The results of this study show that washing machines tend to be underloaded, and therefore maximum loading of the machines could lead to a reduction of wash cycles per household. With respect to detergent dosage, it was determined that the consumer does not adjust the dosage to the textile type, load size, soil level and/or water hardness, and this can lead to under‐ or overdosing depending on prevailing conditions. Finally, the selection of the wash temperature showed a 90°C/95°C programme was only chosen in 2.3% of all recorded wash cycles, however, every fourth cycle was completed at 60°C. Therefore, adjusting the load size and detergent dosage as well as selecting the right wash temperature are key themes to be taken into account in future consumer communication about energy‐saving households.