Over 80 per cent of travellers worldwide think sustainable travel is important, yet when it comes to putting this into practice, there's a massive behaviour gap.
A new study from the University of Portsmouth explores why there's a gap and what can be done to close it.
Senior lecturer in marketing and lead author Dr Marta Nieto-Garcia from the University's Faculty of Business and Law, said: "Despite expressing intentions to support eco-friendly travel, tourists' behaviour often tells a different story altogether.
"Our study delves into this tourist behaviour and why they often fail to walk the talk when it comes to sustainable choices, which creates significant challenges for the travel industry."
The paper identifies two key contributors to the 'intention-behaviour' gap.
The first is the consumer angle, which identifies that consumers can be perceived as guilty of hypocritical behaviour showing a clear divide between their intentions and actions. The second explores how researchers might also exacerbate the gap because of methodological shortcomings.
Tourism can sometimes encourage people to focus more on having fun and less on being responsible. This can happen even to travellers who care about the environment and social issues.
Dr Marta Nieto-Garcia, Senior lecturer in marketing
"People's intentions and attitudes about being sustainable don't always match up with what they actually do. When they go on holiday, they might act differently to how they act at home and this is often due to different priorities or moralities when it comes to taking action," Dr Garcia explained.
"Tourism can sometimes encourage people to focus more on having fun and less on being responsible. This can happen even to travellers who care about the environment and social issues."
Dr Garcia said there are plenty of sustainability-focused actions consumers can take. For example:
- booking accommodation that prioritises the environment, such as those powered by solar energy and with zero emissions
- being mindful of food waste by taking only what you need at buffets
- going to restaurants that source their food locally
- walking to the city centre instead of booking a taxi
- prioritising train travel over flying
- remembering to recycle when on holiday
- avoiding water waste by keeping shower duration to a minimum.
The paper also offers recommendations for researchers aimed at designing methods that help bridge the intention-behaviour gap, which include field experiments to reveal real consumer behaviour.
Dr Garcia said: "Researchers should try to collaborate with hotel managers and destination marketing teams to test sustainability-focused initiatives.
"At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, some hotels put a QR code in the shower to encourage customers to reduce shower time. When guests scanned it, they'd see a question asking if they could finish their shower in the time it takes to play a song, which is about three to four minutes.
"Another hotel chain reduced the size of the plates at the buffet and found that food waste actually decreased."
The study argues that the responsibility of researchers is to keep trying recommendations, or interventions that are effective in leading to sustainable behaviour.
It provides specific guidance for researchers such as recruiting actual tourism agents and tourists in real-life situations, observing behaviours, offering incentives to participants, creating surveys and tracking how respondents act.
Dr Garcia added: "By addressing both consumers' tendency to act hypocritically and methodological shortcomings, the paper aims to empower tourists to make more sustainable choices while providing researchers with the tools necessary to accurately study and understand tourist behaviour."
The paper is published in the Annals of Tourism Research.
