IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v32y2011i3p576-588.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Blue Flag or Red Herring: Do beach awards encourage the public to visit beaches?

Author

Listed:
  • McKenna, John
  • Williams, Allan T.
  • Cooper, J. Andrew G.

Abstract

Surveys of beach visitor motivation in Ireland, Wales, Turkey and the USA indicate that beach awards play an insignificant role in motivation to visit beaches. However, a number of criteria closely identified with awards, notably cleanliness and water quality, are revealed to be very important. Aesthetic and emotional factors such as scenic setting and general ambience, and practical concerns such as proximity and range of activities available are much more important than beach awards in attracting visitors to beaches. The merits of beach awards are critically reviewed and it is concluded that any benefits that might accrue are in areas other than attracting visitors.

Suggested Citation

  • McKenna, John & Williams, Allan T. & Cooper, J. Andrew G., 2011. "Blue Flag or Red Herring: Do beach awards encourage the public to visit beaches?," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 576-588.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:32:y:2011:i:3:p:576-588
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2010.05.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517710000890
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2010.05.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anton Nahman & Dan Rigby, 2008. "Valuing Blue Flag Status And Estuarine Water Quality In Margate, South Africa1," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(4), pages 721-737, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cabezas-Rabadán, C. & Rodilla, M. & Pardo-Pascual, J.E. & Herrera-Racionero, P., 2019. "Assessing users’ expectations and perceptions on different beach types and the need for diverse management frameworks along the Western Mediterranean," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 219-231.
    2. Cristina Bernini & Augusto Cerqua, 2020. "Are eco‐labels good for the local economy?," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 645-661, June.
    3. Luidgi Marchese & Camilo M. Botero & Seweryn Zielinski & Giorgio Anfuso & Marcus Polette & Iran Carlos Stalliviere Correa, 2021. "Beach Certification Schemes in Latin America: Are They Applicable to the Brazilian Context?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, January.
    4. Bernini, Cristina & Cerqua, Augusto, 2019. "Do sustainability policies finance local economies?," MPRA Paper 91882, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. S. Capacci & A. E. Scorcu & L. Vici, 2014. "Eco labels and tourism flows: How much is a Blue Flag worth?," Working Papers wp917, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    6. Aline de Freitas & Fernanda Achete & Susana Beatriz Vinzón, 2020. "Characterization of the Coastal Environment as a Baseline for Alternative Tourism Segments Development in Salinópolis, Pará," World, MDPI, vol. 1(3), pages 1-12, November.
    7. Yılmaz Emine & Perna Fernando & Azevedo Paula Serdeira & Custódio Maria João & Çeken Hüseyin, 2022. "Can They Manage in a Sustainable Way? The Role of International Destination Awards in Beach Management," European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 89-99, December.
    8. Capacci, Sara & Scorcu, Antonello E. & Vici, Laura, 2015. "Seaside tourism and eco-labels: The economic impact of Blue Flags," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 88-96.
    9. Tom Gillespie & Stephen Hynes & Ronan C Lyons, 2018. "Picture or Playground: Valuing Coastal Amenities," Trinity Economics Papers tep0518, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2019.
    10. Lucrezi, Serena & Saayman, Melville & Van der Merwe, Peet, 2015. "Managing beaches and beachgoers: Lessons from and for the Blue Flag award," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 211-230.
    11. Rangel-Buitrago, N. & Correa, I.D. & Anfuso, G. & Ergin, A. & Williams, A.T., 2013. "Assessing and managing scenery of the Caribbean Coast of Colombia," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 41-58.
    12. Buckley, Ralf, 2013. "Social-benefit certification as a game," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 203-209.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Halkos, George, 2011. "Economic valuation of coastal zone quality improvements," MPRA Paper 35395, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Kono, Tatsuhito & Yoshida, Jun, 2020. "Travel Cost Method Considering Trip-day Counts as Integers," MPRA Paper 99244, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Deborah E. Lee & Mario du Preez & Stephen G. Hosking, 2011. "The recreational value of beaches in the Nelson Mandela Bay area, South Africa," Working Papers 239, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    4. Tobias Börger & Kolobe Mmonwa & Danny Campbell, 2024. "Hazardous human–wildlife encounters, risk attitudes, and the value of shark nets for coastal recreation," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(2), pages 925-945, March.
    5. Halkos, George, 2012. "The use of contingent valuation in assessing marine and coastal ecosystems’ water quality: A review," MPRA Paper 42183, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Halkos, George & Matsiori, Steriani, 2012. "Determinants of willingness to pay for coastal zone quality improvement," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 391-399.
    7. Lucrezi, Serena & Saayman, Melville & Van der Merwe, Peet, 2015. "Managing beaches and beachgoers: Lessons from and for the Blue Flag award," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 211-230.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:32:y:2011:i:3:p:576-588. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.