Publication details
Bridging the Gap to Greener Tourism: Individual Barriers to Sustainable Transport Choices
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Since tourism-related mobility negatively affects destinations significantly, there is a need to look for elements of sustainable mobility for tourists (Gross and Grimm, 2018). To properly set up sustainable transport, it is essential to know the factors influencing transport choice (Gross and Grimm, 2018). Such factors include personal characteristics, stay characteristics, socio-demographics, and purpose of travel, all of which enter modal choice as individual barriers. The paper will explore tourists' willingness to shift to greener transport in the context of the purpose of the trip, as well as individual barriers and attitudes to this shift. The train is one of the more sustainable modes of transport that can be used to reduce the carbon footprint of a tourist journey. Any train, especially the high-speed rail (HSR), can be a substitute for a plane between two cities (Pagliara et al., 2012). The potential of HSR can only be evaluated if tourists' behaviour and preferences are known (Šauer et al., 2024). For this reason, one of this paper’s new contributions and insights is the tourist's perspective on the choice of transport mode, evaluating decision-making processes and what individual barriers and attitudes enter the choice process. Research often neglects subjective factors on mode choice, while the influence of price is constantly discussed. In this paper, subjective factors will be included, as well as the influence of technology, which is also often missing. To collect data for this research, it draws inspiration from the methodology of Behrens and Pels (2012). Authors Behrens and Pels (2012) investigated individual barriers to switching from air travel to HSR using economic experiments with hypothetical scenarios. We will use the method of choice experiments, where we present respondents with different scenarios with combinations of attributes. We have several levels of attributes, i.e. factors influencing modal choice. Using orthogonal design, we can define the smallest possible number of scenarios. Subsequently, each respondent completes one questionnaire with only a few scenarios. Respondents then select their preferred mode of transport. This method will allow us to quantify the influence of each factor on passengers' decision-making. To obtain a representative sample, we will conduct a field survey at tourist sites with high concentrations of people. It is expected that there will be differences between the factors influencing modal choice. Different groups of travellers based on their socio-demographic characteristics have different key elements in decision-making. For a family with children it may be price, for a young couple it may be environmental responsibility, or for a business traveller it may be time. So, there are different factors influencing modal choice for different groups of travellers. |