IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v7y2015i10p14042-14062d57425.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Young Tourists and Sustainability. Profiles, Attitudes, and Implications for Destination Strategies

Author

Listed:
  • Federica Buffa

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento, Via Inama 5, Trento 38122, Italy)

Abstract

Global trends highlight the growing tourist interest in authentic and sustainable holiday experiences. Designing strategies that enable destinations to catch this tourist segment is, therefore, becoming more and more important for competitiveness. A long-term outlook calls into question the “next generation” of actual and potential tourists, i.e. , young people: understanding their attitude towards sustainability is paramount to drive tourism development in a direction which is coherent to the forthcoming demand. Drawing from an ad hoc survey of 1156 members of the largest Italian association of student and youth tourism, this contribution (a) discusses youth attitudes towards sustainability, their travel motivations and behavior (b) identifies different profiles of young tourists with reference to sustainability. By using characteristics and dimensions linked with “harder ecotourists” we identify hard path young tourists (HPYT) and soft path young tourists (SPYT). The findings confirm young people’s interest in certain dimensions of sustainability and the influence this interest has on their decision-making processes, motivations, and behaviors. HPYT and SPYT are profiles which should be considered in destination strategies: the strong sensitivity of HPYT to sustainability suggests the possibility of creating offers that optimize the unique features of a territory.

Suggested Citation

  • Federica Buffa, 2015. "Young Tourists and Sustainability. Profiles, Attitudes, and Implications for Destination Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-21, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:10:p:14042-14062:d:57425
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/10/14042/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/10/14042/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gianna Moscardo & Laurie Murphy, 2014. "There Is No Such Thing as Sustainable Tourism: Re-Conceptualizing Tourism as a Tool for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(5), pages 1-24, April.
    2. Colin Hunter, 2002. "Sustainable Tourism and the Touristic Ecological Footprint," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 7-20, March.
    3. Tazim Jamal & Blanca A. Camargo & Erica Wilson, 2013. "Critical Omissions and New Directions for Sustainable Tourism: A Situated Macro–Micro Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(11), pages 1-20, October.
    4. Gillian Bowser & Ulrike Gretzel & Elizabeth Davis & Mark Brown, 2014. "Educating the Future of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-10, February.
    5. Weaver, David B., 2012. "Organic, incremental and induced paths to sustainable mass tourism convergence," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 1030-1037.
    6. Carlo Aall, 2014. "Sustainable Tourism in Practice: Promoting or Perverting the Quest for a Sustainable Development?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(5), pages 1-22, April.
    7. Amélie Fiorello & Damien Bo, 2012. "Community-based ecotourism to meet the new tourist's expectations: an exploratory study," Post-Print hal-00951031, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Tek B. Dangi & Tazim Jamal, 2016. "An Integrated Approach to “Sustainable Community-Based Tourism”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-32, May.
    2. Cucari, Nicola & Wankowicz, Ewa & Esposito De Falco, Salvatore, 2019. "Rural tourism and Albergo Diffuso: A case study for sustainable land-use planning," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 105-119.
    3. Antonella Lerario & Silvia Di Turi, 2018. "Sustainable Urban Tourism: Reflections on the Need for Building-Related Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-25, June.
    4. Huihui Feng & Xingpeng Chen & Peter Heck & Hong Miao, 2014. "An Entropy-Perspective Study on the Sustainable Development Potential of Tourism Destination Ecosystem in Dunhuang, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(12), pages 1-27, December.
    5. Ren-Fang Chao, 2015. "Development of Slow Tourism Challenge and Operation Architecture: A Case Study on Green Island, Taiwan," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 65(supplemen), pages 351-367, December.
    6. Næss, Petter & Xue, Jin & Stefansdottir, Harpa & Steffansen, Rasmus & Richardson, Tim, 2019. "Second home mobility, climate impacts and travel modes: Can sustainability obstacles be overcome?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-1.
    7. López-Illán Beatriz & Ibarra-Michel Juan Pedro, 2017. "Environmental Sustainability Analysis as a Competitive Strategy in the Hotel Industry of Sinaloa, Mexico," Czech Journal of Tourism, Sciendo, vol. 6(2), pages 171-186, December.
    8. Wannipa Koodsela & Huang Dong & Kassara Sukpatch, 2019. "A Holistic Conceptual Framework into Practice-Based on Urban Tourism Toward Sustainable Development in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-28, December.
    9. Carlo Aall & Ko Koens, 2019. "The Discourse on Sustainable Urban Tourism: The Need for Discussing More Than Overtourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-12, August.
    10. Daniela Ruxandra Andrei & Rodica-Manuela Gogonea & Marian Zaharia & Jean-Vasile Andrei, 2014. "Is Romanian Rural Tourism Sustainable? Revealing Particularities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(12), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Buongiorno, Alessandro & Intini, Mario, 2021. "Sustainable tourism and mobility development in natural protected areas: Evidence from Apulia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    12. Richard Butler, 2018. "Sustainable Tourism in Sensitive Environments: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-11, May.
    13. Joshua Otieno WANGA & Patrick Odhiambo HAYOMBE & Pius Ongoro ODUNGA & Fredrick Z.A. ODEDE, 2013. "The Nexus between environmental knowledge and ecotourism attitude among the local youths in Co-educational Secondary Schools in Bondo Sub-County, Siaya County, Kenya," International Journal of Business and Social Research, LAR Center Press, vol. 3(7), pages 103-116, July.
    14. Gheorghe Epuran & Bianca Tescașiu & Alina-Simona Tecău & Ioana-Simona Ivasciuc & Adina-Nicoleta Candrea, 2020. "Permaculture and Downshifting-Sources of Sustainable Tourism Development in Rural Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    15. Mingyu Zhao & Jianguo Liu, 2021. "Study on Spatial Structure Characteristics of the Tourism and Leisure Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-14, November.
    16. Suess, Courtney & Mody, Makarand, 2016. "Gaming can be sustainable too! Using Social Representation Theory to examine the moderating effects of tourism diversification on residents' tax paying behavior," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 20-39.
    17. Stefano Duglio & Alessandro Bonadonna & Marilisa Letey & Giovanni Peira & Laura Zavattaro & Giampiero Lombardi, 2019. "Tourism Development in Inner Mountain Areas—The Local Stakeholders’ Point of View through a Mixed Method Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-19, October.
    18. Franklin Torres-Bejarano & Luis C. González-Márquez & Beatriz Díaz-Solano & Ana C. Torregroza-Espinosa & Rubén Cantero-Rodelo, 2018. "Effects of beach tourists on bathing water and sand quality at Puerto Velero, Colombia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 255-269, February.
    19. Doru Marian Tudorache & Tamara Simon & Cristi Frenț & Mărioara Musteaţă-Pavel, 2017. "Difficulties and Challenges in Applying the European Tourism Indicators System (ETIS) for Sustainable Tourist Destinations: The Case of Braşov County in the Romanian Carpathians," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-19, October.
    20. Andrea Giampiccoli & Oliver Mtapuri, 2021. "From Conventional to Alternative Tourism: Rebalancing Tourism towards a Community-Based Tourism Approach in Hanoi, Vietnam," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-22, May.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:10:p:14042-14062:d:57425. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.