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Drawing upon value theory, this study investigates both the enabling and disabling features of marketplaces for consumers in the disability market. Analysis of longitudinal qualitative data collected before and after the introduction of a new disability service provision scheme in Australia offer empirical evidence of such marketplaces that are both creating and destroying value for people with disability and their carers. In some instances, value creation and destruction can co-occur for individual consumers. These empirical insights lead to a theoretical conceptualisation of the marketplace as not being wholly disabling, but rather consisting of disabling and enabling factors. Understanding these factors allows service providers and policy makers to make adjustments in view of maximising value creation and minimising value destruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that research aiming to understand or change human behavior must measure real behavior, not just behavioral intentions, to draw valid conclusions. The work highlights the well-established gap between people's intentions and behavior across various tourism and hospitality contexts. Methodologically, we encourage authors not to rely on behavioral intentions and instead measure real behavior. We provide an overview of methods available to capture real behavior either automatically or manually in tourism contexts. The article also introduces a special issue in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism that showcases the measurement of real environmentally significant tourist behavior using diverse methods, such as biometric techniques, big data analytics, field observations, and experiments. We conclude by discussing five issues that prevent studies form drawing causal conclusions about behavior, namely, (i) reliance on behavioral intentions; (ii) a sample that does not reflect the population of interest; (iii) errors in measuring latent psychological constructs; (iv) consumer hypocrisy and social desirability bias; and (v) situational factors and habits. By advocating for a transition towards measuring real behavior, the article and the special issue aim to increase the validity and impact of research seeking to understand human behavior and drive effective behavior change for addressing global challenges. Highlights: Much tourism research aims to understand or change behavior. Yet, behavior is not routinely measured, limiting the validity of findings. This article discusses the many possible approaches to capturing real behavior. This article outlines the most valid research design to study behavior (change). This article introduces the special issue on measuring real behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraging restaurant guests to order vegetarian dishes plays a key role in creating a more environmentally sustainable tourism sector. However, for many consumers eating a meat dish is an important aspect of their enjoyment-focused restaurant experience. Identifying new approaches that support restaurants in selling more vegetarian dishes are urgently needed. Drawing from hedonic psychology and affective forecasting theory, this study tests two interventions aimed at directing ordering towards specific vegetarian dishes in a scenario-based survey experiment with 742 consumers. Results show the potential of affective forecasting as a promising psychological mechanism. Displaying an appetising picture of a vegetarian dish on a menu increases stated ordering of the dish because the picture directs consumer attention to the dish and triggers them to imagine eating the dish. Consumers who imagine eating the dish feel stronger anticipated enjoyment of eating it. Adding to the picture an invitation to imagine eating the dish does not further increase the effect. This study explains the psychological mechanism of how a picture of an appetising vegetarian dish changes food choices and provides restaurants with a cost-effective measure to direct ordering towards more environmentally sustainable dishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tourism industry must reduce the negative impacts of its operations on the environment to secure its own prosperity into the future and to contribute to humanity's collective aim of more sustainable production and consumption. An increasing number of studies in sustainable tourism have attempted to develop and test in the field the effectiveness of behavioural change interventions aimed at enticing tourism stakeholders in behaving more sustainably. These efforts have focused primarily on tourists. Employees have been largely neglected as potential agents of change, despite the substantial environmental consequences of their behaviours. This article pioneers this area of investigation. In a quasi-experimental field study conducted during regular operations of two hotels in Europe, we demonstrate that an equity-theory based behavioural intervention can successfully reduce the number of single-use shampoos dispensed by hotel cleaning staff during daily routine room cleans. Results are of immediate value to managers of tourism businesses – especially those of small and medium sized accommodation providers who do not have the financial means to make major infrastructure changes – by equipping them with a practical measure they can easily deploy to reduce the negative impact on the environment of their operations while also reducing their operating cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instructional Manipulation Checks (IMCs) are intended to detect inattention, a common occurrence in survey responding. We use eye tracking to empirically assess the attention that survey respondents dedicate to a short and a long IMC. We find that all 21 respondents pass the short IMC. In contrast, six respondents fail the long IMC. Our eye-tracking results show that some respondents who fail the long IMC check allocate more cognitive effort and time to processing this check than others, suggesting that lack of comprehension rather than inattention may be the relevant underlying mechanism for their failure. For other respondents failing the IMC, lack of attention and speeding is more likely to be the culprit. These findings culminate into the suggestion that future researchers should assess the time that respondents failing an IMC dedicated to this check to distinguish between miscomprehension (long time) and inattention (short time). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Destination image formation theory postulates that the way tourists perceive a destination – the destination's image – affects tourists' destination choice. Organic destination image – which develops naturally, without an active effort by anyone to shape destination image – is more powerful than destination image induced through marketing because tourists are sceptical about the information conveyed to them through marketing communication channels. Theory predicts that destinations cannot control organic image. We challenge this assumption by hypothesizing that visible environmental initiatives at the destination are positively associated with the organic destination image of being environmentally sustainable. Results indicate that destinations may indeed be able to proactively and deliberately manage their organic image. Tourists who notice pro-environmental initiatives at the destination and pay attention to them perceive the destination as more environmentally friendly and sustainable when they depart. With organic image being a key driver of destination choice, implementation of pro-environmental initiatives becomes a rational marketing investment. This is particularly important given the increasing environmental concern of consumers. The invaluable side effect of redirecting "green marketing dollars" towards "green action dollars" is the improved environmental performance of the destination, which contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates heterogeneity of preferences for disability services within the theoretical framework of consumption values. We conducted interviews with people with a disability and disability service providers to develop survey items, then conducted a survey with 2000 adult Australian residents who either had a disability or were carers of a person with a disability. After conducting descriptive analyses and data-driven market segmentation, findings revealed that, at the aggregate level, basic or functional benefits of disability services are most important. However, when accounting for heterogeneity, very distinct benefit patterns emerge, pointing to the substantial potential for improving disability services by catering to distinct market segment needs. These insights have the potential to improve disability service provision, thus maximally harvesting the opportunities from disability service models that now often include commercial providers, and enabling people with disabilities to make optimal choices in relation to both services and providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large proportion of the global population is currently grappling with water shortages. In many countries, the potential implementation of recycled water initiatives has been thwarted because of public opposition towards the notion of using recycled water. The development of effective advertising messages that increase public acceptance and willingness to use alternative water sources would increase the likelihood of recycled water use being embraced by communities. The present study conducted a factorial design experiment to test the effectiveness of 18 different print advertising messages in the context of recycled water use. Both egoistic and altruistic benefits are equally effective in increasing behavioural intention. Communicating the delivery rather than the desirability of benefits is more likely to increase community acceptance of recycled water. Print media represents a cost-effective marketing channel and has the potential to facilitate greater public support for recycled water initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the home context, behaviors that serve the greater good are more often observed among people from collectivist cultures than those from individualist cultures. This tendency is assumed to translate to the vacation context, with people from all collectivist cultures believed to display homogeneous behavior. This study challenges both notions and investigates, for the first time, both the context- and culture-dependence of one specific environmentally significant behavior: plate waste generation. Informed by goal framing and cultural dimensions theories, this qualitative study with samples from a masculine collectivist culture (China) and a feminine collectivist culture (Slovenia) reveals that the level of pro-environmental behavior declines on vacation. Sampling new food and letting oneself go – the shared drivers of plate waste across both cultures – point to the highly hedonic motivation associated with food consumption during vacations. Reported reasons for plate waste generation differ across cultures. Slovene tourists report transferring their habits from home, suggesting that household social norms remain active. Chinese tourists abandon their normative habits, prioritizing hedonic and gain motives instead when on vacation. The specific drivers of environmentally significant behavior we identified can guide the development of culture-specific interventions to reduce the plate waste generated in tourism and hospitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tourism industry contributes eight percent to global carbon emissions, directly and indirectly. Indirect carbon emissions are often neglected because they are difficult to calculate. The traditional approach to calculating indirect emissions – Life Cycle Assessment – is expensive and requires an expert data analyst. We introduce an alternative approach, the Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis. We show how this approach – currently used at macro-level to estimate carbon emissions at national or regional level – can be applied to the business level using carbon emissions generated by one hotel room clean as an example. Our comparative analysis shows that Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis leads to similar results as Life Cycle Assessment, while being substantially cheaper and more user-friendly. Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis, we conclude, enables tourism businesses to estimate the indirect carbon emissions of their operations, which is the key to identifying target areas for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To better understand and predict tourism demand, we introduce the concept of vacation dedication to the tourism literature. Vacation dedication is a form of enthusiasm for and devotion to going on vacation. It is an enduring urge to go on a vacation that is so strong that it persists in spite of external constraints. We empirically test its links to the well-established constructs of travel involvement, commitment, and tourist identity. Affective commitment emerges as most strongly associated with vacation dedication, pointing to an important emotional component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study explores the amount of attention tourists pay to social responsibility (environment and community) information when booking accommodation online. Visual attention is a necessary requirement for tourists to consider the social responsibility of different accommodation options when making bookings. Eye tracking methodology was used to measure the visual attention paid to social responsibility initiatives in a simulated accommodation booking webpage. Results reveal that information about social responsibility initiatives does not attract significant visual attention from tourists, especially when they are confronted with a typically large amount of information about accommodation options. Such information is therefore unlikely to affect booking decisions. Accommodation providers can actively direct tourists' attention to social responsibility initiatives by reducing the total amount of information provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theory/practice divide exists in market segmentation. The main reasons are the focus of academic studies on statistical techniques, and managers' lack of understanding of fundamental segmentation basics (Dibb 2005; Greenberg and McDonald 1989). To date, only one study has explored methodological reasons for the theory/practice divide: Dibb and Simkin 1994. We extend their work by: (1) detailing key methodological aspects likely to cause difficulties in translating segmentation findings into managerially useful information, and (2) empirically investigating specific research questions about methodology-induced reasons for the theory/practice divide derived from both theory and the propositions of previous studies. Results indicate a large proportion of managers lack a fundamental understanding of market segmentation methodology, thus over-interpreting the validity of solutions. More than 60% of managers indicated that to them, market segmentation is like a "black box", and they have difficulties interpreting presented segmentation solutions. Practical recommendations for improvement are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractTwo types of happiness (eudaimonia and hedonia) could potentially be leveraged to trigger pro-environmental tourist behaviour while preserving or even enhancing guest satisfaction. Hedonia (sensory/immediate pleasure) is commonly considered a barrier to pro-environmental behaviour on vacation, while eudaimonia (fulfilment/growth) is generally thought to prompt pro-environmental behaviour. Whether, and in what way, hedonia and eudaimonia are associated with pro-environmental behaviour in tourism, remains empirically untested. This study assesses—for the first time—the empirical relationship of hedonia and eudaimonia with stated pro-environmental behaviour in both an imagined home and vacation context to determine tourism-specific context dependence. Eudaimonia emerges as being highly related to tourist pro-environmental behaviour, suggesting a promising leverage point for pro-environmental behaviour change interventions. Contrary to popular belief, there is no empirical evidence of hedonia being associated with tourist pro-environmental behaviour, suggesting it may not represent a barrier to such behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing communications media technologies have the potential to be intrusive and influence consumers' perceptions of marketing communication. Aggressive direct marketing (DM) is one communication tool that has the potential to lead to consumer concern about information privacy. Concerned consumers change their behavior: They refuse to buy through risky channels or provide information, thus jeopardizing the aim of DM. Responsible DM can prevent such reactions and build trust. Typical measures taken and recommended to protect consumers from privacy violations are of a regulative rather than a market-oriented nature, which is directly opposed to companies' profit-maximization aims. We propose a segmentation-based approach for responsible DM, based on consumer heterogeneity regarding privacy concerns and privacy-related behavior. Using two independent samples from South Africa and Australia, we explore consumers' views on privacy issues and examine the potential of a market-oriented approach to responsible DM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study explores visual attention to carbon labels on restaurant menus. Carbon labels can support consumers in making deliberate low-carbon menu choices if, and only if, consumers pay attention to such labels. Using eye-tracking, we investigate how much attention consumers pay to carbon labels. We also compare how much attention they pay to carbon labels compared to labels indicating the benefit of each menu item to the local community. Results indicate that both carbon labels and labels communicating local community benefits attract little attention, suggesting that they are insufficient to direct patrons towards ordering low emissions menu items. Directing patrons toward more environmentally friendly menu items could significantly reduce the negative environmental impact of tourism and hospitality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recycling water is not new. Yet, there are many examples from around the world of recycled water projects that have failed because of public opposition. This article reviews the literature investigating factors associated with public acceptance of recycled water, as well as publicly accessible reports and case studies, which have developed or tested approaches to increase public acceptance. The article concludes by summarizing the state of knowledge in this area, and advancing key research questions relating to public acceptance of recycled water that urgently need to be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractEating less meat when dining out can help mitigate climate change. Plant-based meats can facilitate the transition to a more environmentally sustainable tourism sector. However, uptake of these products remains low. Building on the capability-opportunity-motivation behaviour model, this study identifies the main reasons for the general population of restaurant patrons to reject plant-based meats: they prefer meat and traditional vegetable dishes; they are concerned about not enjoying plant-based meat dishes; they perceive plant-based meat dishes as too expensive. Accounting for heterogeneity among diners leads to the identification of six distinct consumer segments, which differ in their reasons for not ordering plant-based meat dishes in restaurants. From these empirical insights, we derive recommendations for tourism professionals on how to entice specific consumer segments to order plant-based meat dishes and identify future avenues for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voluntary carbon offsetting by air passengers could help counteract environmental damage caused by air travel. But adoption rates among air travellers are low. This study (1) develops new communication messages which counteract barriers to carbon offsetting identified in prior studies, and (2) tests their effectiveness using psychophysiological and attitudinal measures, a technique new to sustainable tourism research methodologies. Results point to low levels of traveller awareness of carbon offsetting schemes, the primary need for any message to attract the air passengers’ attention, the superiority of pictorial and short textual information as well as the identification of particularly effective content. The study makes three key contributions: (1) it highlights the critical importance of awareness raising as a precursor of behavioural change, (2) it offers tangible recommendations for improving carbon offsetting messages, and (3) it demonstrates the usefulness of psychophysiological measures for pre-testing alternative social marketing messages aimed at increasing environmentally sustainable tourist behaviour across a range of applications. Findings of considerable practical importance include refinements of current messages to increase both attention levels and emotional arousal, and the positive impact of promoting additional social co-benefits alongside environmental benefits. Future valuable research themes using psychophysiological and attitudinal measures are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews and evaluates the wide range of supply and demand side measures employed and tested to reduce the environmental impacts of tourist accommodation. It focuses on the importance of understanding market segments and their pro-environmental behaviour by exploring the personal and travel characteristics significantly associated with pro-environment beneficial change, empirically investigating hotel guest characteristics associated with higher towel reuse. Towel use per day, per room, is modelled according to the number of adults in the room, the number of children, and the type and origins of guests. Observed actual towel use by 204 travel parties spending 480 nights in a four-star hotel in Slovenia reveals key personal and travel characteristics of hotel guests which are predictive of towel reuse: their country of origin, booking methods used, being a business traveller and not being a family. Results point to a-priori market segments which could be given booking preference in periods of high demand to reduce hotel environmental footprints. Results also point to promising leverage points for interventions designed to modify the behaviour of hotel guests on site. The approach and methodology used could be applied to marketing pro-environmental concepts more widely across other sustainable initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Misalignment of pro-environmental beliefs and environmentally unsustainable vacation behaviour can cause psychological tension to tourists. They manage this tension by finding justifications for their behaviour, rather than changing their behaviour. A recent study has systematized such justification; this systematics is used in the present study to investigate the existence of tourist segment sharing justification patterns. A finite mixture model with concomitant variables is used to analyse 2785 survey responses. Three segments are identified. Thegovernment blamersexpress strong interest in the environmental sustainability of their vacation, but deny both their responsibility and ability to make a difference. Thestruggling seekerswould not book their dream vacation if it was environmentally unfriendly, yet do not feel in control of reducing negative environmental impacts of their holiday, which they fully acknowledge. Theimpact neglectersalso state they would not book their dream vacation if it was environmentally unfriendly, but their main justification for taking – potentially environmentally harmful – vacations is denial of the negative environmental consequences of tourism. The existence of these differences in justification patterns indicates different approaches could counteract each of these segment-specific beliefs by inducing cognitive dissonance, shown in other contexts to induce behavioural change. Advice on approaches is given. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public acceptance of recycled water, desalinated water and rainwater is compared across nine international locations: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, Norway and United States (specifically in Los Angeles). An online study was conducted in 2012, with 200 participants recruited to be representative of their respective location (1800 in total). The study investigated participants’ intended use of and perceptions of alternative water sources. Results indicate that respondents clearly differentiate between alternative water sources. Water source preference varied between water use purposes. Significant differences were found between locations in the percentage of respondents willing to use alternative water sources. Additionally the study found significant differences across locations in perceptions held of five water sources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Eco labelling of tourism services has been studied extensively in the past. Yet, there is no agreement on two key points: (1) whether or not eco certification increases tourist demand for a product among the general tourist population, and (2) whether or not there is a specific market segment whose purchase decisions are influenced by eco labels. Lack of agreement is partially due to the wide variety of different research approaches used. Most studies have in common, however, that they rely solely on tourist self reports of either behavioural intentions or past behaviour. The present study re-investigates these two questions using a quasi-experimental design based on actual observed behaviour and objective knowledge testing. Results indicate that (1) eco labelling does not have a big impact on general tourist demand, but (2) a niche market exists which is influenced by eco labelling when choosing among alternative tourist providers. The research design used in the present study offers a useful alternative for investigations of tourist purchase decisions. It leads to more reliable results because it is based on the observation of actual displayed behaviour, thus avoiding a range of answer biases. Other eco-certified products now need research on similar lines. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many environmental organisations rely on volunteers to provide important services that would otherwise not be provided by government. However, with the substantial growth in Australia's non-profit sector, the competition for volunteers has increased significantly. Non-profit organisations are implementing marketing strategies to convince potential volunteers that their particular cause is more worthy of an individual's valuable time than other leisure activities. Most studies of volunteers focus on individuals who are already involved; however, equally important is understanding those who have not previously volunteered but who stated their intention to do so in future. This study investigates this notion in the context of environmental volunteering. Through a survey of 1318 Australians, we identify that potential environmental volunteers differ from non-environmental volunteers in terms of having: (1) stronger pro-environmental attitudes; (2) different motivations for volunteering; and (3) differing personal values. Practically, findings can inform volunteer recruitment strategies to target individuals who already have a predisposition towards environmental volunteering, resulting in more efficient spend of limited marketing dollars. Promotions that align with the motivations and values of this group are more likely to resonate with them and prompt action, and have the potential to increase the overall number of volunteers for environmental causes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents information on Josef Mazanec, former professor at the Department of Tourism and Service Management of MODUL University Vienna, Austria. It focuses on his birth, family, and education including a degree in Business Administration with a specialization in market research and advertising. It focuses on his academic career, his passion for social psychology, and his work in advertising, marketing and market research, which were related to consumer behavior.

This paper tackles a key issue arising from the United Nations World Tourism Organization call for consumers to take climate change into consideration when making travel decisions. Some people genuinely want to comply with this request. However, they face the “perplexity of environmental information”, a series of informational barriers to decision-making. Can they assess their travel's climate change impacts easily? Studies were conducted with 261 potential travellers in Australia and Slovenia. Results from an empirical study on using carbon footprint calculators suggest that they cannot: tourists are unfamiliar with carbon calculators and, if alerted to their existence, find them difficult to use and have doubts about their credibility. They are also not good at estimating, without assistance from a carbon calculator, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused by different components of their vacation. Tourism industry and public policy makers interested in environmentally sustainable tourism need to develop improved ways of providing tourists with trustworthy and user-friendly information about the carbon footprint implications of their vacation decisions. In so doing they can empower tourists who want to consider environmental issues when planning their vacation to actually do so. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Survey research is critical to the development of knowledge and market insight in hospitality and tourism. Survey research quality depends on the willingness of respondents to participate, and this is decreasing. The recent development of dynamic, interactive online survey question formats may contribute to solving this problem by making surveys more engaging for respondents. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study which compares traditional and dynamic interactive answer formats using objective and subjective assessment criteria. Results indicate that using a simple dynamic, interactive question in a study on tourism and quality of life improved the objective quality of the data and made the survey experience easier and more fun for respondents, thus leading to higher quality data for users of market research on this topic. Given the wide variety of dynamic question formats, users of market research data need to, however, assess on a case-by-case basis if survey questions are merely more entertaining or whether they indeed increase the validity of data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteer managers face a typical marketing problem: how to identify the right consumers (in this case, volunteers), attract them, and keep them loyal. In multicultural societies this challenge is amplified because of the different groups originating from countries that can vary significantly in terms of the extent of volunteering and reasons for being involved. The consequence of this heterogeneity is limited success of generic marketing campaigns. Using the theory of planned behavior, we investigate differences between Australian residents from different cultural backgrounds in their volunteering behavior. Groups differed in attitude, social norm, and perceived behavioral control, suggesting the need for customized marketing strategies. Theoretically, results provide evidence that volunteers in multicultural societies cannot be viewed as one homogeneous mass. Practically, results offer insight into the factors influencing the behavior of each cultural group, and can inform customized campaigns to tap into the large base of volunteers from different backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Australia is experiencing a shortage of foster carers, there is currently little understanding of why people do not become carers. This study explores the reasons given for not fostering though a survey of 897 non carers. Results indicate that, at the aggregate level, people do not become carers because they do not know anything about fostering, or because they are busy with their own children, work, or commitments to family and friends. However, if we account for heterogeneity, differences in these barriers are observed for subgroups within the sample. We investigate the structure of the market of potential foster carers by segmenting the market using cultural background as the segmentation base. Results indicate that the reasons for not fostering differ depending on the subgroup being examined. Theoretically, this suggests that heterogeneity exists within the foster care market, and that examining barriers to foster care only at the aggregate level neglects the importance of individual subsegment characteristics. Practically, results are important because they suggest that generic marketing campaigns aimed at the entire community have limited effect and that customised strategies are required to attract the particular types of carers most needed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Existing literature suggests that information search and planning always precede travel activity. This contrasts with our understanding of purchasing behaviour in other contexts where a significant amount of non-planned, impulse purchasing occurs. We propose that impulse purchasing also occurs in tourism. Results from an empirical study show that impulse purchasing does occur in tourism and is specifically associated with shorter trips, a small number of travel companions, specific travel motivations, and familiarity with the destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A destination has no chance of being chosen unless it is part of a tourist's early consideration set (Crompton & Ankomah, 1993), implying the tourist's awareness of the destination. Raising awareness for a destination is challenging, especially in times of global competition. We investigate a common, yet empirically untested, assumption that business travelers can be converted to holidaymakers at the same destination at a future point in time. Empirical results indicate that business travelers do use business trips to a new destination to assess the potential for future leisure travel. Marketing strategies which destinations could deploy to entice business travelers back as holidaymakers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper answers key questions about personal and industry decision-making in implementing sustainable tourism. Being environmentally friendly is typically associated with sacrifice, including sacrifice of comfort (e.g. walking rather than driving), sacrifice of time (e.g. recycling garbage) or sacrifice of money (e.g. buying more expensive locally grown vegetables). Consequently, the tourism industry perceives sustainable tourism as a sacrificial touristic niche, one that is associated with additional cost but appears to attract customers who do not spend enough money to compensate for the extra effort. This paper explores a perceived trade-off between minimising environmental damage and maximising revenue, by finding market segments that are environmentally friendly and have high expenditures. An online survey was made of 1003 Australian domestic tourists. Results indicate that tourist segments vary significantly in terms of their environmental impacts and vacation expenditure. Six segments were identified. Two market segments, containing 40% of the total market, that leave small environmental footprints while maintaining high expenditure were found, indicating that market segmentation when coupled with marketing/demarketing policies can be used as a strategy complementary to the development of destination-based initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies which information about tourists serves as the best predictor of their pro-environmental behavior at home and on vacation. If a small set of predictors can be identified, the tourism industry would be able to use them to focus attention on attracting tourists with smaller environmental footprints. Results from a survey asking respondents about pro-environmental behavior in their role as residents and tourists indicate that environmental concern, altruism, feeling morally obliged to behave in an environmentally friendly manner, age and regional identity are the best predictors of the segment of people who behave in an environmentally friendly way at home. Income levels and moral obligation best predict membership of the segment of environmentally friendly tourists. The two segments overlap; differences between them are due to the fact that, at home, people can create the infrastructure they require to behave in an environmentally friendly way. On vacation they need to adjust to the infrastructure provided, which can act as a barrier to pro-environmental behavior. Results have direct practical implications, highlighting the value of demand-side approaches to environmentally sustainable tourism for protected areas, both urban and rural, such as focusing on those market segments that have the highest intrinsic inclination to protect the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing competition in the third sector has resulted in nonprofit organizations making more sophisticated use of marketing techniques to attract volunteers. Not only are organizations attempting to attract more volunteers but increasingly the focus is shifting to attracting the right type of volunteers, or those who will contribute the most hours. This study segments the volunteering market by number of hours contributed in the past 12 months, and identifies significant differences between the characteristics of high-contribution and low-contribution volunteers. High-contribution volunteers are found to (a) exhibit distinctive sociodemographic characteristics; (b) have a greater number, and broader range, of motivations for volunteering; and (c) initially get involved in volunteering in different ways to low-contribution volunteers. Findings are important because they provide practitioners with a description of those individuals most likely to contribute more hours, which can be used to increasingly attract these types of people and subsequently reduce the amount spent continually attracting new volunteers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this qualitative investigation is to help nonprofit organizations which rely heavily on the support of volunteers increase the effectiveness of their marketing by accounting for differences in cultural background among community members. It was conducted in the multi-cultural Australian context and included 79 participants from different cultural backgrounds. Findings indicate that as a whole, cultural groups differ significantly with respect to their attitudes, social norm and perceived behavioral control over volunteering. Nonprofit organizations are unlikely to be successful in attracting volunteers from a range of different cultural backgrounds unless they account for heterogeneity among volunteers and customize marketing messages. To the authors' knowledge this is the first study that investigates differences in attitude, social norm and perceived behavioral control regarding an important social marketing issue: changing the volunteering behavior of individuals in a multi-cultural society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental sustainability in tourism has received significant attention among destination managers and researchers alike. Yet the range of measures proposed to reduce the environmental footprints of tourists at a destination remains limited to measures taken at the destination, as opposed to marketing measures which aim to attract truly green tourists. The potential of using green tourists as a market segment, however, has not been established. We review published profiles of green tourists and assess the managerial usefulness of this segment using theoretical criteria of segment attractiveness. Results indicate that much is known about the distinctive characteristics of green tourists. Very little, however, has been done to assess whether green tourists are substantial enough to represent a useful target market, whether a customized marketing mix can be designed, whether they can be reached through specific communication channels and whether green tourists can be identified repeatedly. These results provide a clear direction for future research into the green tourist market segment, which is essential for a marketing-oriented approach to sustainable tourism to be successful. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research into nonprofit organizations abounds, but not much is known about public sector nonprofit organizations. Recent funding incentives in Australia have led to significant changes in the market environment for such organizations. This study describes these market changes and explores the reactions of one environmental public sector nonprofit organization, Bushcare NSW, to these changes. This paper contends that, within this institutional environment, nonprofit organizations more successful in attracting large amounts of external funding have better administrative structures in place, whereas those less successful find themselves confronted with burdensome administrative duties. Neo-institutional theory provides a theoretical basis for this empirical investigation. Funding changes have had a major impact on Bushcare organizations, those more successful in attracting grants reporting significantly fewer recent administrative changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable tourism and ecotourism have now been researched in depth for some years. This paper highlights that researchers still have only a limited understanding of what tourist behaviour can be considered as sustainable, and little consensus about who environment-friendly tourists (EFTs) actually are. This study reviews theoretical and empirical studies by tourism researchers, and explores work done on environment-friendly behaviour in other disciplines. Results indicate that operationalisations of EFTs are inconsistent and, at times, do not ensure that EFTs are actually studied, thus jeopardising the quality of cumulative knowledge on this critical issue. There is little insight into who EFTs are. Suggestions for future work are made, which would develop more reliable and generalisable insights into EFT profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An empirical study was conducted to gain an understanding of the motivations of undergraduate students in attending lectures. Students were highly heterogeneous regarding their reported lecture attendance motivations, with two segments representing prototypical extremes. The student group labelled ‘idealists’ in this study reported genuinely enjoying lectures, were mature aged students with work experience and more frequently in the arts subjects surveyed. Students labelled ‘pragmatics’ in this study were most highly represented in the commerce subjects surveyed, were among the younger students, reported attending lectures to get the information they need to succeed in the subject and reported the lowest lecture attendance while achieving the highest grade point average of the students in the study. Generally, as opposed to the findings of previous studies into reasons for lecture attendance in the 1970s, a shift towards pragmatism among students seems to have occurred and now defines the reality of the tertiary education environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An excellent market-driven way to successfully implement sustainable tourism in a destination is to find a segment of tourists or potential tourists interested in the unique natural beauty of the destination, willing to preserve it, and who are also highly attractive in terms of high expenditures, long stays, high return rate, high recommendation rate etc. The first step in seeking these visitors is through investigation of sustainable market segments. So far, only a few studies have systematically searched for 'eco-segments'or sustainable tourist groups and described them. This paper reviews the usefulness of such approaches, examines past studies investigating potential target segments and describes the group of summer tourists in Austria who care about maintaining the natural environment. The results suggest that this group of visitors has some highly attractive characteristics and is very large, thus offering a sound basis for additional sustainable niche segment creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sport tourism, an example of which includes surf tourism, 'is a prevalent and growing phenomena'. Nevertheless, very few investigations of the surf tourism market exist. This paper extends the work of other researchers by investigating surf tourists from a behavioural perspective, with the main aim of the study being to gain an insight into the travel patterns of the surf tourism market. This is achieved in an empirical way by using unsupervised neural networks to partition a group of surfers into homogeneous segments based on their past surf destination choice. This binary information was gathered by means of an online survey that asked respondents questions indicating whether or not they have ever surfed in particular places. In addition, descriptive information is included in the dataset and is divided into 'surf-related questions', 'personal characteristics' and 'travel behaviour'. It was found that based on past destination choice, six market segments could be described, each with significantly different ages, surfing ability, length of stay, preferred wave type and regularity of undertaking surf trips. The results of these finding have implications for both surf destinations and the tourism industry that facilitates the experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clustering has become a very popular way of identifying market segments based on survey data. The number of published segmentation studies has strongly increased since the milestone publication on benefit segmentation by Haley in 1968. Nevertheless, numerous very fundamental weaknesses are permanently encountered when studying segmentation studies in detail, thus making the results reported more than questionable. This article illustrates how data-driven segmentation studies are typically conducted in the field of tourism research, provides a systematic overview of applications published in the last decades, outlines critical issues that often lead to overestimation of the validity of results and offers solutions or recommendations that help both the researcher to keep the critical issues in mind as well as the management to evaluate the validity and usefulness of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hotel attribute importance studies have a long tradition in hospitality research. This study investigates the issue for business travelers by asking the respondents to state their expectations and disappointments / dissatisfaction in an open question format instead of rating the importance of attributes directly. The aim of the study is twofold: (1) to learn about expectations and past disappointments of this particular segment to provide additional insight for customizing hotel offers and (2) to investigate whether the findings reported in literature so far are mirrored or not. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Heterogeneity of perceptions is a neglected issue in market segmentation studies. Only recently parametric approaches toward modeling segmented perception-preference structures such as combined MDS and Latent Class procedures have been introduced. A completely different nonparametric method is based on topology-sensitive vector quantization (VQ) for consumers-by-brands-by-attributes data. It maps the segment-specific perceptual structures into bar charts with multiple brand positions exhibiting perceptual distinctiveness or similarity. A brief introduction into the VQ methodology is followed by a sample study on three urban destinations competing on the world travel markets. City images serve as the underlying behavioral constructs. Preferential data are based on respondents' comes-closest-to-ideal-city judgments and incorporated into the perceptual positions of city profiles. Perceptual charting works on two levels of aggregation named prototypes and perceptual sub-structures. The results demonstrate how this method prevents the analyst from drawing erroneous conclusions due to uncontrolled aggregation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]