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This paper argues that developing practical interventions of responsible behavior requires a deeper understanding of different segments of tourists with different environmental and psychological dispositions. Dwelling on two socio-psychological theories of cognitive dissonance and the focus theory of normative conduct, 724 Chinese tourists are surveyed and segmented. Three segments namely eco-distressed, eco-pragmatic, and eco-calm are identified revealing different dispositions of eco-paralysis, environmental concern, and pro-environmental behaviors. Complemented by 37 interviews, we found that eco-paralysis does not necessarily mean inaction but helplessness and perceptions of feeling "small" in the face of "giant" climate change while overcoming numbness with small actions. This study suggests that the eco-paralysis of Chinese tourists is manifested at the cognitive-emotional level rather than at the behavioral level. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the varying degrees of cognitive dissonance among different tourists with each group displaying unique environmental concerns and behaviors. It, theoretically, highlights how social and injunctive norms such as government environmental advocacy and traditional virtues ["qinjian jieyue"] stimulate progressive actions despite feelings of powerlessness. Thus, it questions the prevalent interpretation in environmental psychological research that helplessness means inaction by revealing that tourists could still be environmentally proactive despite cognitive-emotional challenges from climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an empirical application of some recent developments in the social science of sustainability to understanding sustainable transport behaviour. We analyse talk about holidaymaking taken from interviews with self-defined "eco" or "sustainable" tourists. The focus of this paper explores the ways in which participants understand and reconcile the potential conflict of air transport and the notion of sustainable holidays. We identify a number of discursive strategies participants used to project and maintain positive self-representations in the context of complex, often incompatible constructions of sustainability derived from this particular dilemma. Such strategies are considered as concrete examples of the psychosocial organisation of denial and thus offer discursive barriers to sustainable transport futures. However, the analysis also demonstrates the ways in which some individuals were able to resist or challenge such forms of socially organised denial. The potential implications of these discursive barriers and strategies for sustainable transport futures and the tourism sector are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between tourism and climate change is reciprocal. The effects of climate change on tourism are undeniable. However, tourism and climate change are complex and cross-cutting phenomena that enter policy agendas at different moments and with different discourses. This paper analyses the coherence between the policy domains of climate and tourism at the formulation stage of the policy process, focusing on national and regional government levels and the key touristic offer in Spain - that of sun, sea and sand. The proposed method analyses three dimensions within policy documents: frame significance, policy scope and connotation. Results reveal the imbalance between the two policy domains; the lack of concrete actions and stable mechanisms for achieving greater coherence; and the different conceptions of the issue. The paper considers the causal relationships between tourism and climate change, the consequences of mutual impacts, and the temporal dimension of problem framing. This research brings together three fields of knowledge - tourism, climate change and public policies - and suggests enhancing coherence between tourism and climate policies in order to address the sustainability of tourism destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper presents an integrative review of how social marketing principles and practices have been conceptualised and applied in tourism studies. A systematic literature search was conducted, which found 41 relevant tourism-related journal articles published from 1971 to January 2024. Thirty-six articles self-identified as social marketing, while five studies did not self-identify as social marketing. Findings show most tourism studies conceptualise social marketing from a downstream or micro- perspective, seeking to influence behaviour change in individual tourists. Studies applying an upstream or systems perspective in tourism are rare, indicating opportunities for future research in tourism to align approaches with contemporary social marketing practice. Often theory and model use are not reported, making it challenging to identify the requisite key success factors for effective social marketing interventions. Not only are the impacts of interventions rarely documented, but they also tend to be short-term. Long-term evaluation of interventions, particularly at the macro-level, is missing. A model of social marketing application in tourism is suggested that integrates approaches across the downstream, community, upstream, and macro- levels. Implications for further utilisation of social marketing to achieve sustainable tourism are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces and explores the psychological and social factors that both contribute to and inhibit behaviour change vis-à-vis sustainable (tourist) mobility. It is based on papers presented at theFreiburg 2012workshop. Specifically, it reviews climate change attitudes and perceptions, the psychological benefits of tourism mobilities, addictive elements of mobility and social norming effects, the attitude–behaviour gap (i.e. cognitive dissonance between understandings of, and responses to, climate change), the psychology of modal shifts, the psychology of travel speed/time and psychological explanations for the perceived importance of long distance travel. It notes that anthropogenic climate change is an inescapable reality and that tourism's share of greenhouse gas emissions appears set to rise substantially. There is little prospect of technical solutions adequately addressing this problem. The paper concludes that, while a comprehensive understanding of tourist psychology is necessary to inform policy-makers, it alone will be insufficient to achieve emission reductions, and bring tourism to a climatically sustainable pathway, if treated in isolation. Radical change in the structures of provision is also necessary. That change may take the form of infrastructure planning, including financial and economic infrastructure (e.g. taxation regimes and emission trading schemes) for sustainable mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the current climate of intense turbulence, tourism must transform to a more sustainable development platform. Yet it remains unclear how the concept of sustainability is embedded at different levels of government policy and planning, and how this has evolved over time. This paper identifies the concept of sustainability as it is articulated in 339 Australian tourism strategic planning and policy documents published between 2000 and 2011. The paper examines the extent to which the concept of sustainable tourism is evident in the discourse of Australian tourism strategic planning documents at the national, state, regional and local levels, as well as the balance of the discourse in relation to sustainability objectives. The results show that the frequency of occurrence of sustainability as a concept has slightly increased in strategies over the past decade. At the same time, there has been a shift in the conceptualisation of sustainability, with thinking evolving from nature-based, social and triple bottom line concepts toward a focus on climate change, responsibility, adaption and transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses complex challenges and addressing these requires increasing integration across policy domains. This research developed a framework to assess policy integration between the tourism and climate change domains by examining coverage, scope, materiality and alignment. A database of 101 policy documents was compiled, representing 61 countries over 17 years. Only 37 documents covered the tourism-climate nexus substantially, suggesting climate change has not yet become a priority for tourism policy makers. Considering that tourism makes considerable contributions to and is substantially impacted by climate change, the observed gaps in tourism policy need to be addressed. The paper concludes with some minimum expectations for policy integration, including examples of good practice, and suggests that more effort is required to achieve climate change policy integration in tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jamaican tourism industry is very climate sensitive, and, like most Caribbean islands, Jamaica's main tourism product is coastal, centered on "sun, sea and sand". The island is susceptible to many risks posed by climate change, including sea level rise and extreme events, with resultant impacts such as beach erosion, flooding, saline intrusion into aquifers and general coastal degradation. This paper evaluates the relative vulnerability of beach versus non-beach tourism in Jamaica, using 43 pre-determined literature-linked indicators. These comprise bio-geophysical, social, technological, economical, technological and institutional factors. Four case areas are assessed using multi-criteria decision analysis to derive vulnerability scores for each area. The study finds that non-beach tourism operations should not be automatically perceived as less vulnerable than beach-based operations. Sustainable adaptation options are complex and numerous, and overall beach tourism businesses have better insurance, emergency savings, disaster plans and backup power facilities, among others. They also have the advantage of being in business longer than the inland resorts, a firmer business structure and an extensive marketing budget. In the long term, better adaptation and planning by inland businesses could change this balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a critical sustainability challenge for alpine tourism and the ski industry. Climate change adaptation is characterised as identifying and taking advantage of new business opportunities plus reducing physical risks. For adaptation strategies to be sustainable they should consider the environment, economy and society. While several adaptive ski industry strategies have been identified, not all can fulfil these criteria; some adaptive strategies could be perceived as unsustainable, or maladaptive. This paper provides a qualitative, perceptual study of ski industry stakeholders in Queenstown, New Zealand, addressing perceptions of climate change adaptation by the core industry, wider industry actors, local community and tourists. It answers two research questions: What are perceived as the main climate change adaptation strategies for Queenstown's ski industry? How do ski industry stakeholders perceive current adaptation strategies in terms of sustainability? It finds snowmaking central to addressing both current weather variability and medium/long-term future climate change. Ski-field operators use snowmaking to ensure the industry's economic sustainability, to extend seasons even beyond traditional norms, but with little consideration for environmental or social sustainability. It finds some local people questioning snowmaking on ethical and environmental grounds, and skier acceptance of snowmaking connected to activity preference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a critical review of the concept of "carbon neutrality" for tourism destinations within the framework of the UNWTO's Davos Declaration, a document ascribing responsibilities to various actors in the tourism industry to engage in greenhouse gas emission reductions. The paper assesses the planning frameworks of countries engaging with the concept, discusses the measures that can be taken to achieve "carbon neutrality", along with an evaluation of some of the theoretical and practical implications. An increasing number of destinations now plan to become "carbon neutral", often as a response strategy to pressure on the tourism industry to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases. They aim to mitigate their contribution to global warming, and to develop their tourism industries by enhancing their image as being environmentally pristine and sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the approach and reasoning behind two central conceptual diagrams relating tourism and climate change. The first diagram describes a typical polarisation in tourism and climate change knowledge management. It is argued that this polarisation restricts the collective body of knowledge and obscures important causal links between tourism and climate change phenomena. Developments are proposed in a second conceptual model which counters the tendency of scientists, policymakers, the tourism industry and NGOs to polarise along two research interests by discussing climate's influence on tourism vs. tourism's influence on climate; either of which could be interpreted as a primary limitation to the sustainability of tourism. The paper places into context key perspectives in the tourism-climate change discussions, addresses the difficulty of including system feedbacks between human activity and climate interactions, and draws attention to the underlying drivers of unsustainable trends. New strategic conceptual models are advocated to support long-term non-territorial collaboration, to incorporate adaptation and mitigation in ways which are not mutually exclusive, and to address the following paradox: that the cross-section of the global population driving the demand for tourism resources threatened by climate change are also disproportionately responsible for increased radiative forcing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tourism sector's demand for food, and the distance some food travels, has significant impacts on greenhouse gas emissions and implications for climate change, especially in long haul small island state destinations. This paper describes the development of the concept of food miles, and the many measurement issues involved. It analyses a small island ecotourism project in Fiji where the source, and transport mode, of all food consumed over 35 months was recorded in detail, during which time conscious efforts were made to minimise imported foods and increase island-grown food. In 2008, the share of imported “non-Fiji” food was 18%, by 2010 it was reduced to 5%. On-site production had risen from zero to 15%. Off-island, but Fijian, food accounted for the balance. Food miles were reduced by over 50%; carbon emissions from food transport fell by over 20%. Some problems were encountered by the largely young (average age 27 years), largely UK/US visitors who were unused to “low carbon” diets with reduced meat levels. Ideas are put forward to overcome that challenge, including new/fashionable cooking techniques, and interpreting local food and farming to visitors. Management issues involved in larger scale ventures are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tourism results in the emission of climate-changing greenhouse gases. There has been limited destination-focused quantitative analysis of how tourism might be reshaped to reduce these emissions. This paper uses an extended tourism environmental satellite account methodology to examine the case of tourism in Wales, a United Kingdom region. It shows how an estimate of the emissions associated with trips to, and in, the region – internally, from the rest of the UK and from abroad – can contribute to regional aspirations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis suggests that substantial emissions cuts are dependent upon technical developments outside of tourism itself. Four potential scenarios are devised and analysed. Scenario 1 shows the value of low carbon electricity production in cutting tourism-related emissions. Scenario 2 analyses a possible 50% fall in international arrivals and 10% increase in UK domestic arrivals – maintaining employment but reducing emissions. Scenario 3 shows the effects of switch from private to public transport modes for 50% of UK resident arrivals. Scenario 4 examines the outcomes of reducing ground transport emissions by using electric, biofuel and hybrid technologies. All scenarios cut emissions, none are highly effective and most are dependent on changes in society and governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism in ski resorts depends on snow cover which is expected to decline with climate change. This paper explores hypotheses about demand side responses to climatic change by analyzing patterns of visitation in recent years with differing snow cover. Snow cover and visitation patterns to six resorts which differ in altitude and size in Victoria, Australia, were compared between a slightly warm and much drier year (2006, +0.6°C and -50% precipitation to longer-term averages) to a more typical year (2007) and to nine earlier years. Snowmaking partly offset declines in natural snow cover in 2006, although there were still fewer days with snow on the ground. The number of visitor days was much lower in 2006 than the previous nine years for the three lowest-altitude resorts (-69%), while it actually increased (+10%) in the highest altitude resort where there were fewer visitors (-17%), but they stayed longer. Snowmaking is already critical for ski resorts in low snow years. With warmer conditions, lower-altitude resorts may not receive enough income due to reduced visitation to offset snowmaking costs, while higher-altitude resorts may have a short-term gain, but become uneconomical in the longer term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With more than 40 million tourists visiting wineries each year, wine tourism is increasingly seen as a business strategy that provides economic benefits not only for the wine industry but also for the surrounding region. These economic benefits come with the environmental cost of increasing carbon emissions. This important environmental issue, however, has received very limited attention in existing wine tourism policies, wine industry carbon footprint studies, and wine industry sustainability frameworks. In this study, we provide the first-ever macro-level carbon emission profile for wine tourism activities in Australia. Using environmentally extended input-output modelling, we offer a comprehensive picture of the carbon footprint of this growing market, showing that tourism is responsible for more than one-third of the wine industry's carbon footprint. We also provide a tradeoff analysis that discusses the amount of emissions that are produced to earn one-dollar of revenue via wine tourism. The results demonstrate that the failure to take the carbon costs of wine tourism into account may encourage the pursuit of an unlimited growth approach to wine tourism, which will increase greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the effects of climate change that are already being felt in the wine sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caribbean islands that are highly dependent on tourism are facing compounding crises from climate-related disasters to the Covid-19 pandemic travel disruption. The rebuilding of tourism infrastructure has often been one of the main aims of international development aid and regional government responses to natural disasters. This article seeks to identify other ways in which Caribbean small island states and non-independent territories might rebuild more sustainable ecologies and economies as they come out of the pandemic within the ongoing climate crisis. The first part shows the historical grounding of climate change vulnerability in colonial histories, neoliberal capitalism and ongoing practices of "extractive" tourism. This analysis of the "coloniality of climate" centers on a critique of disaster tourism during these "unnatural disasters," and allows for re-framing the ethical and political implications of tourism recovery when other human im/mobilities (such as migration) are severely curtailed. The article then elaborates on the theoretical concept of "mobility justice" as a way to think through the problem of sustainability transitions in relation to tourism mobilities, climate change and disaster recovery. The final section considers alternative visions for disaster reconstruction in the Caribbean centering food sovereignty, agroecology and regenerative economies, as promoted by community-based organizations and people's assemblies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global freshwater resources are under ever-increasing pressure that is anticipated to be exacerbated by climate change. Increasing demands for water use will require tourism to improve and disclose its monitoring and reporting, particularly for water-intensive activities such as golf tourism. Using a sample of 129 courses from Ontario (Canada), this is the first study to examine golf course characteristics that influence water use variability (e.g. dominant soil type, ownership type, and age of course). By establishing “best in class” water use efficiency among common types of courses, potential water extraction savings of 35% are identified (or 6.75 billion litres annually). Importantly, the study also accounts for the influence of climate variability on water use by comparing a climatically normal season (for the 1981-2010 period) with an anomalously dry and warm season to examine the potential impact of future climate change on water use (i.e. reduced precipitation and higher temperatures). Average water use effectively almost doubles during an anomalously dry-warm season (increasing from 59.6 to 94.2 million litres), accentuating the importance of achieving potential water use efficiencies. In addition to best management practices, the need to reshape public perceptions of golf course aesthetics is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhushing selectively communicates fewer pro-sustainability actions by businesses than are practiced; based on a perception of customers’ rights to consumerism. We first studied the gap between the communication of sustainability practices in the audits and websites of 31 small rural tourism businesses in the Peak District National Park (UK). The analysis showed that businesses only communicate 30% of all the sustainability actions practiced. Their websites emphasised customer benefits, using explicit, affective, experiential and active language that legitimises the customers’ hedonistic use of the landscape, while downplaying complex issues and normalising sustainability to reduce customer guilt. Just one website mentioned climate change. We found that greenhushing results from a low moral intensity, masking potentially negative consequences of perceived lower competence, whilst protecting business from more cynical consumers who may interpret their statements as hypocritical. Subsequent textual analysis and interviews were used to understand how communication constitutes these organisations. We propose that greenhushing reshapes and constitutes tourism businesses through their communications. Moreover, greenhushing is a form of public moralisation that adopts communication practices similar to greenwashing, reflecting the social norms expected from a business; however, in this case, located in a moral muteness, rather than moral hypocrisy, that businesses accept but resent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The cruise tourism industry in Arctic Canada has recently grown rapidly with stable numbers now emerging. While there are many socio-economic opportunities associated with growth, climate change, and environmental, technical and cultural risks also present significant management challenges. To enhance understanding of these opportunities and risks, this study adopted a policy Delphi approach to identify and evaluate potential adaptation strategies to aid decision-makers and policy-makers managing cruise tourism development and its associated impacts. Over 500 ideas were identified. These were distilled down to 65 potential adaptation options, which were evaluated for priority and feasibility by key stakeholders including local residents, tourism operators, and policy-makers. The majority of recommendations were evaluated as of high priority and most options were perceived to be somewhat affordable and implementable. Key needs included disaster management plans, updated technology and ship navigation systems, improved marine resource mapping, and the development of a code of conduct for cruise tourists to guide visitor behaviour and promote a sustainable approach. The research represents the first empirical study to identify and evaluate adaptation strategies for cruise tourism development in Arctic Canada and outlines current priorities, opportunities, and challenges associated with managing socio-economic change in Arctic Canada in sustainable ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to objectify people's subjective viewpoints toward air travel and climate change. Using an online questionnaire, a series of statements about aviation and the environment were scored by 491 subjects in the Netherlands. Through factorization of the response patterns six distinct viewpoints on aviation and climate change are revealed and identified as integration, ignorance, denial, necessity, guilt and indulgence/fatalism. Each viewpoint is shown to be associated with fitting levels of air travel behavior and general environmental awareness. As in previous research, it is shown that air travel behavior does not significantly correlate with general environmental awareness. Notable differences were found, however, between those subjects under 30 years old and those over 30 years old: the older group were much more likely to claim both necessity and indulgence/fatalism as a reason for flying. The results add to our understanding of attitude-behavior inconsistency by revealing how people from their own standpoints reconcile and/or prevent possible inconsistencies between certain air travel behaviors and pro-environmental attitudes. Practically, the viewpoints offer more effective sustainability discourses, and point to several new policy measures to remove the “sting” from the denial position by enhancing the credibility of the “rationalization of lifestyle” discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]