Resources

RESOURCES


RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Jorge E. Araña, Gianluca Goffi & Carmelo J. León
School/Work Place : Institute of Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development (TIDES) University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Contact : jorge.arana@ulpgc.es
Year : 2016

There is an increasing concern for environmental and social issues among international travelers. As a consequence, many tourist corporations have been exploring the implementation of Social Responsibility (SR) policies as a tool to gain competitiveness advantages. The available evidence seems to point out that these policies are not effectively influencing tourism demand (Font et al., 2012; Juvan & Dolnicar, 2014).

In this study we explore this issue by designing two Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs). The first DCE was aimed at measuring visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP) for different SR actions. In particular the most valued policies were: (i) Labor conditions, (ii) Environmental issues, (iii) Local Community relations; iv) Animal welfare. Although there were some clear differences for SR actions among nationalities (e.g. “cultural bias”) the results show that tourists are willingness to travel more often, and willingness to pay more money for their trips if SR policies are implemented and properly communicated. In terms of importance, the dimensions were ranked as follows: (1) Environment; (2) Labor; (3) Social Projects for the Local Community. DCE results are shown that visitor’ preferences for SR policies were quite heterogeneous among the population. In particular it was found that SR preferences among the population could be characterized by a small segment of the population holding high WTP for such policies and a large portion of the population with low levels of WTP.

While all SR activities were discovered to have a positive influence on tourists choices, there still exist a large controversy estimating the real impact of SR policies on tourism demand. In order to account for potential explanations of this issue, a second DCE was implemented to elicit Tour Operators (TOs)’ perception of tourist preferences (and behavior) when facing with information of alternative SR actions during the tourist package buying process. The results show that there were not statistical differences among TOs perception of visitors’ preferences and overall mean preference for the visitors’ sample. However, TOs responses do not seem to account for the existence of several segments in the population. A further de-briefing study was implemented finding that the two more plausible explanations for the gap among SR preference levels and implementation are: i) Demand heterogeneity; ii) Markets inefficiencies in providers at the destination. Further actions aimed at improving SR communication strategies to reach specific market segments and to improve suppliers’ market efficiency at the destination. 


List of Articles
No. Subject Viewssort Date
314 Think Tank X Implementing Destination Governance file 4082 Oct 13, 2013

In the tourism management literature, several authors (Nordin, Beritelli et al, Pechlaner) have promoted the concept of destination governance, to define a coalition of disparate parties with common interests, as a productive approach to to...

Author: Loredana Padurean 

Year: 2010 

313 Think Tank IX Values: Dollars, trees or feelings? file 4169 Oct 13, 2013

The importance of values to tourism is but one aspect of the importance of values in human interactions with the natural environment and even more broadly to the human condition. However, attempts to understand the impact of values on behav...

Author: Denise Dillon 

Year: 2009 

312 Think Tank XII Ex Post Investigations of Tourist Consumptions and Env... file 4177 Nov 06, 2013

Progress towards a more sustainable future of tourism is conditioned by simultaneous improvements of the production and consumption of leisure. Consequently, efforts are done by companies (hotels, airlines, tour operators, etc), governmental...

Author: Adriana Budeanu 

Year: 2012 

311 Think Tank XII Virtual Mobilities and Sustainable Tourism: Virtual Fi... file 4258 Nov 06, 2013

Due to the financial constraints on the part of the educational institution as well as the student, offsetting the GHG emissions generated by the fieldtrip is often not regarded as financially feasible, or subject to doubts about the integri...

Author: Christian Schott 

Year: 2012 

310 Think Tank XI Use of Cases in an Ethical Teaching Resource for Touri... file 4274 Oct 14, 2013

Ethical problems are an integral part of all professions and academic disciplines (Clarkeburn, 2002). However, it is recognised that the increasing application of technology by students in research is not always matched by consideration of ...

Author: Carl Cater 

Year: 2011 

309 Think Tank VII Outfitting and Guiding as Sustainable Tourism file 4293 Oct 13, 2013

The antecedents of the modern outfitter are numerous and varied, reaching far back into mythology, allegoric literature, history, and geographic exploration. Throughout history, guides have played two distinct roles, the pathfinder and the m...

Author: Norma Nickerson 

Year: 2007 

308 Think Tank XV Enhancing stakeholders’ participation for sustainable ... file 4338 Jul 27, 2015

Tourism is a fragile industry with multiple stakeholders. Globally, the desire of its stakeholders is to gain more benefits and eliminate negative impacts on resources that support the industry, particularly in protected areas (PAs) such as ...

Author: Richie Wandwi 

Year: 2015 

307 Think Tank XII It's how you get there: Developing a Transportation Mo... file 4348 Nov 06, 2013

This paper examines the impacts of alternative modes of transportation utilized for an international study course in Ecuador during two consecutive summers. The analysis includes the perceived value of the student participants in relation to...

Author: Kenneth Cohen & John Bowen 

Year: 2012 

306 Think Tank XVI The Act of Giving – Understanding CSR in Myanmar in a ... file 4367 Jul 02, 2016

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Author: Nicole Häusler & Kathrin Dischereit 

Year: 2016 

305 Think Tank XII Tourist Cards - Experiences with Soft Mobility in Germ... file 4419 Nov 06, 2013

An increasing number of destinations face the negative sides of tourism transport. Especially, the motorized (individual) traffic can cause ecological problems due to a risen traffic volume, noise and air pollution or its negative effects on...

Author: Dorothea Dürkop & Sven Gross 

Year: 2012 

304 Think Tank IX De-constructing the Cosmopolitan Gaze file 4435 Oct 13, 2013

Introduction: Nurturing effective intercultural dialogue through tourism has been positioned to be an emergent challenge to tourism professionals working toward sustainability in a globalised world (Robinson and Picard 2006). This interdisci...

Author: Patricia Johnson 

Year: 2009 

303 Think Tank VII Innovation in Tourism Education: Building the Capacity... file 4442 Oct 13, 2013

This paper will present the findings of a recent Summit on the Future of Tourism Education held in April 2007 in Austria. The summit's goal is to identify future societal, economic, environmental, political and technological trends from 201...

Author: Pauline Sheldon 

Year: 2007 

302 Think Tank IV Evaluation of Tourism Events: A Critical Review with a... file 4484 Oct 13, 2013

This presentation will critically review the three main sources of error in tourism event evaluation, related to the limited temporal, geographic and economic scope of current event evaluation approaches. In doing so, it will draw the attent...

Author: Jack Carlsen 

Year: 2004 

301 Think Tank VIII Managing Work/Life Balance Issues: An Examination of H... file 4564 Oct 13, 2013

The purpose of this study was to identify international human resource management best practice with regard to work/life balance policies and practices within an international hotel in Auckland, New Zealand. The methodology included an anal...

Author: Elizabeth Roberts, David Williamson & Carmen Cox 

Year: 2008 

300 Think Tank XV Can we eat it? Exploring the cultural challenges in ma... file 4593 Jul 27, 2015

Can we eat it? How did you stop the waves? Is there water in there? Where is the switch to turn it off? Will it eat me? These are just some of the many questions asked by visitors to uShaka Sea World in Durban, South Africa. While South Afri...

Author: Judy Mann & Roy Ballantyne & Jan Packer 

Year: 2015 

299 Think Tank XV Inclusive tourism business models: A comparative analy... file 4606 Jul 27, 2015

Mitchell and Ashley state that the “bulk of pro-poor tourism literature has not aimed at measuring impact… [and] is indeed recognized as a weakness in the pro-poor tourism literature by its proponents” (2010:5). The research paper aims to qu...

Author: Andrew Rylance 

Year: 2015 

298 Think Tank XII Identifying Issues with Tourist Wayfinding: A Collabor... file 4612 Nov 06, 2013

This paper reports on a study that was conducted in conjunction with Destination NSW, the government tourism authority for the state of New South Wales in Australia. The purpose of the study was to examine tourist wayfinding behaviour in Syd...

Author: Tony Griffin & Deborah Edwards 

Year: 2012 

297 Think Tank X Indigenous Values Help Shape a Universal Tourism Ethic file 4658 Oct 13, 2013

Indigenous communities from around the planet are defining common values in their tourism programs that attract visitors seeking authentic, transformational experiences. The Maori of New Zealand, Aborigines of Australia, Maasai of Kenya, Am...

Author: Ben Sherman 

Year: 2010 

296 Think Tank V An Economic Explanation of the Net Benefits of Tourism... file 4668 Oct 13, 2013

International tourism is increasingly viewed as one of the best opportunities for a sustainable economic and social development of developing countries. There is also an increasing concern from public policy makers as to whether mass tourism...

Author: Mondher Sahli & Jean-Jacques Nowak 

Year: 2005 

295 Think Tank XVII Sustainable tourism certification in the hotel sector ... file 4706 Aug 17, 2017

This paper presents research commissioned by the African Development Bank (AfDB)’s African Natural Resources Center (ANRC), that aimed to to identify and summarise existing monitoring data being gathered by national tourism authorities and i...

Author: Anna Spenceley 

Year: 2017 

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