Davina Stanford

‘Exceptional Visitors’: Dimensions of Tourist Responsibility in the Context of New Zealand

Within the responsible tourism debate, the tourist is often at best overlooked, and at worst represented as abandoning all sense of responsibility while on holiday. This paper argues that tourists are an untapped resource, they can make positive contributions while on holiday, yet the literature focuses on the other stakeholders. A starting point, therefore, is to place the visitor at the centre of the responsible tourism debate by exploring what it means to be a responsible tourist. This is undertaken in the context of New Zealand. Using two comparative case study sites and semi-structured interviews with industry representatives, expectations of what it means to be a responsible tourist are explored from the industrys perspective. It is concluded that responsible tourist behaviour is multi-faceted and complex, with several dimensions and degrees of dimensions. Enacting generic meanings of responsibility is context-dependent and the onus may fall back to the destinations to guide and direct tourists appropriately.

Reducing visitor car use in a protected area: a market segmentation approach to achieving behaviour change

This research uses a market segmentation approach to reducing transport-related environmental burdens from visitors, while maintaining economic benefit. The approach was tested in the Lake District National Park (UK). It aimed first to explore visitor transport behaviour using a social psychological framework, to understand what might best predict desired behaviour change (i.e. reduced visitor car use). Second, it developed and tested different types of marketing messages to reduce car use, based on persuasive communication theory, establishing marketing propositions appropriate to different visitor types and market segments. Third, it identified market segments with both a high propensity towards positive behavioural change and the highest economic contribution to the destination. The work is based on Ajzens Theory of Planned Behaviour and on persuasive communication. Three hundred and ninety completed questionnaires were obtained. The paper emphasises the importance of context in successful communication to influence behaviour and shows that a market segmentation approach to behavioural change can be successful. Complex patterns of visitor mobility and modal choice emerge. For example “New Explorers” and “Familiar Families” are most likely to reduce their car use (45% and 48% respectively) and less likely to perceive this as difficult.

Driving pro-environmental change in tourist destinations: encouraging sustainable travel in National Parks via partnership project creation and implementation

ABSTRACT This paper explores a key challenge in introducing more sustainable transport practices at destinations: achieving modal shift in visitor travel from cars to physically active or public transport to reduce tourisms environmental impacts. It centres on using partnership led projects bringing together the many public and private sector organisations involved, to drive destination change and development. To date, research has centred on pro-environmental change for individuals and individual organisations: little is known about the mechanisms of pro-environmental change via complex multi-partner organisations. The paper reports research into the processes involved in successful projects to provide alternatives to car travel in three UK National Parks by using partnerships to obtain funding and implement change. Based on case studies informed by in-depth interviews with key stakeholders involved in pro-environmental change implementation, narratives are analysed to explain the change process, and mapped against existing literature and theories of change. Conclusions show the role of inspired individuals, supportive senior management, strong governance, better visitor experiences and, most significantly, communication and communication of the benefits of change to stakeholders. The research suggests why and how change occurs in partnerships, contributes to better theories of change and offers guidance on understanding and implementing change processes worldwide.