Derek Robbins

Slow travel: issues for tourism and climate change

This paper analyses the eclectic evolution of slow travel, examines key features and interpretations, and develops a slow travel framework as an alternative way of conceptualising holidays in the future. The paper focuses on slow travels potential to respond to the challenges of climatic change: travel currently accounts for 50–97.5% of the overall emissions impact of most tourism trips. In-depth interviews with self-identified slow travellers illustrate and underpin the concept and note that slow travellers form a continuum from “soft” to “hard” slow travellers. The paper explores time as a social institution, timeless time and fragmented time, travel as an integral part of the tourist experience, and the links between tourism and the travellers’ self-identity and lifestyles. Special attention is given to people and place engagement, to behavioural choice and decision-making psychology, and to the role and growth of web communities. Slow travel is shown to require both holiday type/style choices and travel mode choices. Walking, cycling, travel using bus, coach and train all facilitate slow travel, while air and car travel do not. Slow travel prompts a reassessment of how tourism interfaces with transport.

A critical review of methods for tourism climate change appraisal: life cycle assessment as a new approach

This paper reviews existing approaches to assessing tourism sustainability, especially its contribution to climate change. It assesses ecological footprint analysis, environmental impact assessment and input–output analysis but finds them inaccurate and unreliable. It goes on to argue that life cycle assessment (LCA) is a more promising tool for tourism climate change impact assessment, highlighting important areas where LCA application can contribute towards better understanding of tourisms role in global climatic changes. To demonstrate the applicability of the LCA methodology, a case study of a short weekend holiday trip is presented. Related greenhouse gas emissions are measured comparing LCA and alternative carbon footprint calculation methods. The comparison demonstrates markedly different results. The reasons for the discrepancy along with the potential of LCA to estimate the “indirect” carbon contribution of the holiday trips components are discussed. A key feature of the LCA calculation is that for short-haul trips the proportional impact of accommodation-related emissions is shown to be larger than in earlier calculations, while transport impacts are reduced.

Awareness of Tourism Impacts on Climate Change and the Implications for Travel Practice: A Polish Perspective

Air travel is forecast to grow globally at around 5% per annum over 30 years, in direct conflict with targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 60% and 80% by 2050. Many authors identify individual behavioral change, with consumers choosing fewer flights, as a contributor to reducing growth. An increasing number of studies examine knowledge about climate change and how this influences decisions to take holidays by air, although these have focused on tourists from developed countries where aviation growth is slowing, whereas future high growth will come from emerging economies. This article explores attitudes to flying from one emerging economy, Poland. A survey of Polish nationals conducted in Cracow in 2010 revealed concern over climate change although knowledge of its causes was poor. Analysis, using a social representations perspective, showed significant societal structures embed air travel as the norm and identified both internal and external barriers to behavioral change.

“Other People, Other Times and Special Places”: A Social Representations Perspective of Cycling in a Tourism Destination

A social representations framework and a mixed methods approach was used to analyse cycling in a UK destination (Purbeck, Dorset). An initial exploratory interview phase provided in-depth knowledge of social contexts and facilitated a subsequent quantitative phase employing travel diaries and a questionnaire survey. Cycling was considered a leisure practice frequently associated with “other” people that was marginalised, isolated from everyday life and situated in other places at other times. While there is potential for cycling to be developed as a tourism product, the need to transport cycles to special places makes it questionable as a sustainable practice. The findings show how, in the absence of actual experience of cycling, social conceptions shape peoples knowledge of cycling and the potential for cycle use.

Defining sustainable transport in rural tourism: experiences from the New Forest

ABSTRACT Transport policy agendas have long sought to bring about more sustainable transport at tourism destinations. Whilst there are examples of successes, it remains unclear what inroads have been made towards creating a sustainable transport future. Policy directions have evolved over a number of years and in many tourism destination contexts, it is far from clear what a desirable transport future looks like. When translated to implementation, the aims of initiatives can be unclear and baseline measures inconsistent, making success difficult to judge. This paper analyses how sustainable travel has been implemented in practice at a destination level. The focus is rural tourism and data are derived from a specific case, the New Forest National Park, UK, where a wide range of transport initiatives have been implemented since the Parks designation in 2005. The study adopts a social practice theory perspective. Data are derived from a visitor survey, interviews and observations. It finds there is scope to improve sustainable transport provision at destinations through understanding visitor practices, but limited scope to influence meanings associated with visitor travel and travel skills. Policy meets the needs of some visitors more than others.