Consumers’ willingness to pay for green initiatives of the hotel industry

This paper examines hotel guests’ willingness to pay a premium for environmentally friendly and sustainable practices of the U.S. hotel industry. Specifically, the goal of this research is to investigate the relationship between the level of U.S. hotel guests’ environmental concern, measured by the New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP) and their willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for hotels’ “green practices.” This study found that U.S. hotel guests with higher degrees of environmental concerns declare a higher willingness to pay premiums for hotels’ green initiatives. This avowed willingness supports the social identity theory and the means-end theory. In addition, based on the affect-based complementarity proposition, this study also examined the effect of hotel type on WTP in the U.S. hotel industry, and found that luxury and mid-priced hotel guests are more willing to pay premiums for hotels’ green practices than economy hotel guests.     

Off-season tourists and the cultural offer of a mass-tourism destination: The case of Rimini

This paper assesses the potential implications on off-season tourism of enhancing the cultural offer of Rimini, a popular Italian seaside holiday destination hosting about 12 million overnight stays per year. Since more than 9 million of these stays are concentrated in the summer season, in the last 20 years. Rimini has been undergoing a policy of seasonality smoothing, which mainly pivots around business and cultural tourism. This assessment has been carried out through discrete choice experiments submitted to a sample of about 800 tourists who visited Rimini outside the summer months. Since tourism can be viewed as a composite good, which overall utility depends on how the component characteristics are arranged, the choice experiments allow to disentangle the importance and the willingness to pay of tourists for different attributes of the holiday. The choice model incorporates a number of possible changes to actual tourism features (which are also the subject of public debate), including them in hypothetical alternative “holiday packages”. The conditional logit analysis of the choice experiments can highlight any synergy or trade-off between cultural and business tourism. Results suggest that business and leisure tourists share many features related to the use of the territory, while there are important trade-offs between these two groups and cultural tourists. Since business tourists have a higher willingness to extend their stay, a softer budget, and their demand is also complementary to the demand of summer tourists (Brau, Scorcu, & Vici, 2009), from the destination point of view investing in this market segment would be the best option. Although a “second best”, however, cultural tourists share with the local population of Rimini many aspects of the demand of territory (Figini, Castellani, & Vici, 2009). Hence, cultural tourism can play a fundamental role in the intermediate season as a tool for smoothing seasonality, to diversify investments and to give value to the city’s cultural heritage.     

A netnographic examination of constructive authenticity in Victoria Falls tourist (restaurant) experiences

The concept of constructive authenticity is seen as encapsulating the subjective nature of authenticity evaluations in tourism experiences. However, very few studies discuss the notion in the context of cultural eatertainment. This paper presents a netnographic analysis of tourists’ restaurant reviews and examines how authenticity is projected onto cultural objects. Online tourist reviews of two popular Victoria Falls restaurants, namely Mama Africa Eating House and The Boma - Place of Eating, were downloaded and analysed. Findings demonstrate that tourists are concerned about authenticity of cultural representations in restaurant experiences, although their constructions of what constitutes “real” African culture are extremely fluid. The study also discusses the implications of findings for theory and practice, and offers suggestions for further enquiry.     

Analyzing tourists’ length of stay at destinations with survival models: A constructive critique based on a case study

The statistical modeling of tourists’ length of stay at destinations is a topic that recently has received much attention from tourism scholars. In this regard, so-called “survival models” have been introduced as a means of studying how a set of independent variables explain variation in the number of days tourists spend at destinations. This paper provides a critical look at these studies. There are two main findings. (1) The various justifications offered for favoring the survival models over the traditional OLS regression do not hold up under closer scrutiny. (2) An empirical study shows that the OLS regression model describes the association between a set of independent variables and length of stay at least as effectively as a battery of survival models. In line with the principle of parsimony it is concluded that future studies on tourists’ length of stay should abandon survival models if they are conducted along similar lines as the ones to date.     

Determinants of willingness to pay to stay at a green lodging facility

The adoption of green initiatives is attracting increasing attention among tourism providers and researchers. One important dimension of travellers’ environmental concern is their willingness to pay higher rates for green travel products. This study determines the association between pro-environmental attitudes and beliefs, and willingness to pay a higher room rate at a green lodging facility. A survey of 388 travellers in Michigan, USA, revealed a positive relationship between environmental concern (measured using the New Environmental Paradigm scale) and willingness to pay for a green hotel room. Income was the only one of a series of socioeconomic, demographic and travel pattern variables to reach statistical significance. Additional evidence regarding consumer attitudes towards and concomitant behaviours with respect to travel and the environment is vital to the broader consideration of the sustainability of the tourism and hospitality sectors. Understanding of willingness to pay for green practices has important marketing and management implications.     

Market shares analysis: The Case of French Tourism Demand

This paper examines the magnitudes and determinants of changes in destinations’ shares of a major tourist origin market. The Almost Ideal Demand System model is used to quantify the responsiveness of French tourism demand in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom to changes in relative prices, exchange rates, tourists’ expenditure budget, and external events. The results indicate that effective price competitiveness is a key variable driving changes in market shares. Policymakers who wish to maintain their shares of the French market should pay particular attention to tourism pricing policies, as well as to improving the tourism offer.     

The flight is valuable regardless of the carbon tax scheme: A case study of Norwegian leisure air travelers

Various countries have introduced a carbon tax on air travel. Carbon taxation is controversial in that it may negatively influence tourism demand. Still, research investigating travelers' willingness to pay (WTP) such taxes is limited. This study explores Norwegian leisure air travelers’ willingness to pay higher carbon taxes than that already included in their ticket price, applying the contingent valuation (CV) method in an experimental design. The impact of eight hypothetical taxation schemes are tested to provide insight into how regulatory policies can be developed so as to improve acceptance for carbon taxes. Results show that Norwegian outbound tourists are ready to accept higher carbon taxes and that WTP is not strongly related to the taxation scheme. This suggests that there exists a scope for policymakers to implement more stringent taxation regimes on air travel than seen today.     

The embodied tourist experiences of people with vision impairment: Management implications beyond the visual gaze

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study that investigated the embodied tourist experiences of 40 people who are vision impaired. The study, informed by the concept of “embodied ontology”, explored the corporeal and socially constructed experience of tourism. The findings highlighted the benefit of holidays for the participants and de-centred the “visual gaze” in the tourist experience. The quality of the tourist experience related to participants’ feelings of inclusion or exclusion in terms of their access to information, experience of wayfinding, travelling with a guide dog, and the knowledge and attitudes of others. It was evident that participants needed to manage their tourist experiences closely and constantly. The paper concludes that the tourism industry and community must understand the multi-sensory nature of the tourist experience if quality accessible experiences are to be available for tourists with vision impairment. Provision of multi-sensory experiences also enhances the experiences of sighted tourists.     

PAGES AS STAGES: A Performance Approach to Visitor Books

This article offers a contribution to the fields of tourist performance and language. By exploring a visitor book located at a heritage site in Jerusalem, Israel, it argues that texts produced by tourists can assume the semiotic status of performances. Consequently, tourists’ texts should not be viewed merely as instances of “discourse” or “language”, but also as organic parts of the aesthetic and semiotic aspects of tourism. The article describes four dimensions that establish the visitor book as a particular “stage”, and the texts therein as the tourists’ situated performances. Taken together, these dimensions constitute a model for the analysis of linguistic performance and for the semiotic interrelationship between stage and performance in tourism.     

VOLUNTEER TOURISM—“INVOLVE ME AND I WILL LEARN”?

Voluntourism or volunteer tourism is increasingly available and popular amongst everyday tourists in different parts of the world. Despite its seeming virtue and it often being positioned as a form of “justice” or “goodwill” tourism, critics in the public media have begun to question and criticize the effectiveness or “real” value of volunteer tourism. However, academic work has not yet critiqued volunteer tourism in the same manner. This paper thus provides a critical and timely review of volunteer tourism, using interviews and participant observation with 11 respondents on a volunteer tourism trip to South Africa. This paper reviews volunteer tourists’ motivations (what prompted their participation); performances of the “self” in volunteer tourism; and the tensions and paradoxes surrounding volunteer tourism.     

The missing component in the ‘greening’ of tourism: The environmental performance of the self-catering accommodation sector

The self-catering accommodation sector has witnessed substantial growth for well over 20 years due to a range of factors, including increases in second home and holiday home ownership and property investment. During this time, debate has arisen over the impact of such ‘holiday homes’ on local communities and rural economies. However, today they are also a substantial element of tourism supply in the self-catering accommodation category in many rural areas, which has largely been ignored and particularly so in the context of the ‘greening’ of tourism and environmental performance (EP) of tourism enterprises. This article aims to address this paucity of attention. First, the background to the ‘greening’ of tourism and tourism enterprises is established and the significance of this to self-catering accommodation. Subsequently, the main findings of a survey into the EP of self-catering accommodation undertaken in the Lake District National Park are discussed.     

“Tourism – Common cause”. Polish tourist products

This research note relates to the Polish programme entitled “Tourism – common cause”. It describes the programme, project ideas and problems encountered during the creation and operation of tourist products and methods of solving these problems. “Tourism – common cause” is the largest training and consulting project in Poland, co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Polish government and is specific for tourism. The aim of the project (completed in March 2008) was to fully define a tourism product and to transfer knowledge concerning methods of its creation throughout the wider region. The purpose was to aid the development of the tourism industry in Poland through the creation of regional tourism products within a network and enhancing the qualifications of those working in the industry.     

Do Blue Flag promotions influence tourists’ willingness to pay a price premium for coastal destinations?

The Blue Flag is a popular eco-label in tourism. This study aims at examining the effectiveness of Blue Flag promotion on tourists' willingness to pay a price premium to coastal destinations via two online experiments. Study 1 shows (n = 152) that the Blue Flag stimulates higher willingness to pay a price premium for coastal destinations directly as well as indirectly through self-congruity and destination brand identification. Study 2 (n = 160) used a new sample to enhance external validity and generalizability of the Study 1 findings. Study 2 shows that destination brand quality and destination brand identification serially mediate the effect of Blue Flag promotions on the tourist's willingness to pay a price premium. The findings suggest that destination managers should deploy the Blue Flag Logo in destination promotions to enhance self-congruence, destination brand identification, perceived destination quality, and the tourist's willingness to pay a price premium.     

Attractiveness of cultural activities in European cities: A latent class approach

Cultural tourism behaviour and destination preference was analysed for 19 European capital cities, utilising the level of participation in cultural activities (participation) and the level of enjoyment of those cultural activities (attractiveness). A latent class model with three classes described the association in the data satisfactorily. Class 1 was labeled “low participation and high attractiveness”, Class 2 was labeled “high participation and high attractiveness”, and Class 3 was labeled “high participation and low attractiveness”. The Class 2 respondents with high participation and attractiveness had the highest cultural capital, and could be considered ‘specific cultural tourists’, whereas the Class 3 respondents could be considered ‘general cultural tourists’. Class 1 respondents, with relatively infrequent participation but high enjoyment, are potentially most interesting in marketing terms.     

Doing good to do well? Corporate social responsibility reasons, practices and impacts in small and medium accommodation enterprises

Corporate social responsibility practices have been mostly analyzed in the large manufacturing business context, with little attention paid to the service sector and even less to small and medium-sized accommodation enterprises. This study aims to fill this gap through analyzing how these enterprises take responsibility. A survey of nearly 400 enterprises showed that the main reason for acting responsibly is altruistic, although competitiveness reasons are also important. Aspects of the “resource-based view” of the firm are validated through the positive impact of environmental cost-savings in financial performance, but also because other practices (not always related with economic reasons) are influencing their competitiveness. The article concludes that further implementation of these practices is necessary to achieve the full potential of competitive advantages.     

Market structure and demand-side substitutability of chained urban hotel segments

This study analyzes how the demand in hotel markets is divided amongst chained hotel segments. Hypotheses regarding consumers’ switching behavior due to changes in income levels and relative prices are tested using data from 25 major urban markets in the United States, encompassing segments ranging from luxury to economy over 43 quarters. The effects of differentiation and market concentration are also investigated in this context. The results suggest that leisure and individual consumers of the low-scale segments may be trading “up” to higher scales when their income increase, but that upscale segments’ corporate consumers are not necessarily trading “down” when Corporate Income fall. In addition, only low-scale segments appear to be substitutes to upscale segments, but the inverse seems not to be true. Also, properties in mid-range segments are found to be the only ones benefiting from a high market concentration, while low-scale properties turn out to be the ones gaining from differentiation through price.     

‘An edifying spectacle’: A history of ‘tourist corroborees’ in Victoria,Australia, 1835–1870

Parsons [Parsons, M. (2002). “Ah that I could convey a proper idea of this interesting wild play of the natives” corroborees and the rise of indigenous Australian cultural tourism. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2(1), 14–27.] has persuasively argued that nineteenth century corroborees performed for non-indigenous audiences may be considered to be Australia's pre-eminent prototypical indigenous cultural tourism product. This paper extends Parsons' [Parsons, M. (1997). The tourist corroboree in South Australia. Aboriginal History, 21(1), 46–69; Parsons, M. (2002). “Ah that I could convey a proper idea of this interesting wild play of the natives” corroborees and the rise of indigenous Australian cultural tourism. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2(1), 14–27.] analyses of ‘tourist corroborees’ in nineteenth century South Australia to corroborees staged in Victoria during the pastoral period and the gold rushes of the 1850–1870s. It argues that an Aboriginal-grown ‘business acumen’ developed rapidly in the economic climate of the Victorian goldfields. It also provides a historical context to this commodification.     

Tourist preferences for ecotourism in rural communities adjacent to Kruger National Park: A choice experiment approach

This paper analyses the potential for development of ecotourism in rural communities adjacent to Kruger National Park (KNP) in South Africa. We determine preferences of tourists, according to origin and income levels, for ecotourism and their marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for three ecotourism attributes: village accommodation, village tours and visits to crafts markets. Data were collected from 319 tourists through choice experiments, and analyzed using a conditional probit model. Findings indicate reluctance on the part of all tourists to use accommodation facilities outside KNP, but interest to purchase village tours and visit village-based craft markets. MWTP was negative for accommodation for all income groups, but positive for village tours and crafts markets. Among international and high income groups of tourists, tourists were willing to pay much higher fees than proposed by communities. These findings suggest the potential for development of some limited ecotourism services in villages adjacent to KNP.     

Don't change my towels please: Factors influencing participation in towel reuse programs

Towel reuse is the flagship of hotel environmental practices. This paper examines the effects of consumer demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics influencing a two-stage decision making process including participation and support to a towel reuse program. A meta-analysis shows that 53% of customers are willing to financially support green hotels. A survey of 1304 Greek and foreign hotel customers in tourism hot spots in Greece reveals that 72% of hotel customers would adopt a towel reuse program while 44.1% are willing to pay extra an average of 2.15 euros per day to support it. Younger customers and customers that book high-priced hotels or with higher length of stay exhibit higher willingness to pay extra for towel reuse programs. As rising water and energy shortages in specific tourism hotspots bring hotels' environmental integration under increased scrutiny, the focal findings hold significant implications for hotel managers and tourism policy makers.     

The self-catering accommodation market: A review of electronic and other sources

This paper contributes to a better understanding the self-catering accommodation sector by considering its nature and scope within Scotland, the UK and the international context. It reviews the available literature search and also presents an exhaustive search of the Internet. The term “self catering accommodation” typically refers to cottages and holiday flats, but also may include larger premises as well as mobile units such as boats. Student accommodation comes into this category, as do serviced apartments for business use. Self-catered accommodation is widely used for activity holidays, and courses for outward-bound or country pursuits. The sector is considered in terms of economic impact, ownership, and mode of use, and an analysis of the market shows that it has grown and changed rapidly since the 1980s driven by changes in the economy and advances in technology. During the same period demand has increased due to demographic, economic and lifestyle changes, the predominant segments being older and middle-aged customers and young couples without children. The growth of short break holidays and a growing interest in country pursuits and activity holidays favour the self-catering sector.