Willingness to Pay for More Sustainable Tourism Destinations in World Heritage Cities: The Case of Caceres, Spain

Examining the Economic Value of Tourism and Visitor Preferences: A Portrait of Sustainability Ecotourism in the Tangkahan Protection Area, Gunung Leuser National Park, North Sumatra, Indonesia

North Sumatra Province has the Tangkahan Nature Tourism Area, which represents ecotourism managed by local communities, established in 2001, which has now become the leading tourism destination of North Sumatra both locally and internationally. Tangkahan ecotourism is an example of payment for environmental services for the Tangkahan community, which initially carried out illegal logging in the mount Leuseur national park and then agreed to preserve the national park through ecotourism. This study aims to analyze the economic value of tourism and the preferences of tourists to revisit, along with the factors that influence them, where these conditions can be an illustration of the sustainability of Tangkahan ecotourism. The travel cost method is used to calculate the economic value of Tangkahan Ecotourism environmental services. The factors that affect the economic value, intensity of visits, and interest in revisiting, were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results showed that Tangkahan ecotourism has a relatively high economic value, supported by the intensity and interest of tourist visits. Factors that affect the economic value and preferences of tourist visits can be managed for the sustainability of Tangkahan ecotourism so as not to lose the economic value of the ecotourism environmental services.

Investigating Change in the Willingness to Pay for a More Sustainable Tourist Destination in a World Heritage City

The willingness to pay for sustainable tourism products and services has been widely discussed in the scientific literature. However, change in the willingness to pay over time has rarely been analysed. Such studies are important for understanding the impact that the increasing debate on sustainability, including environmental, economic, and social aspects, may have had on the willingness of tourists to pay more in order to ensure the sustainability of destinations. The aim of this article is to assess how the willingness of tourists to pay for sustainable tourism services has developed in the Spanish city of Cáceres, declared a World Heritage Site in 1986. Data from surveys conducted in 2012 and 2016 were used for this purpose. Logistic regression was applied to determine whether sociodemographic characteristics of tourists who visit the city influenced their willingness to pay in each year. A Chow test was applied to elucidate whether the differences between the years were statistically significant. The results obtained indicate that only the level of education determined willingness to pay, while origin, gender and age showed no effect. No significant change in the willingness to pay for sustainability was found among tourists in Cáceres between 2012 and 2016. These findings indicate that the willingness to pay for more sustainable tourism services did not increase during the period studied. We propose some measures such as a ‘municipal observatory of sustainable tourism’ in order to increase willingness to pay in this type of destination.

Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Destinations: A Structural Approach

Even though tourists increasingly value sustainable practices in tourism businesses and destinations, price is still one of the main determinant factors in their decisions. Therefore, for destination managers it is essential to understand tourists’ willingness to pay an additional price to visit a place where sustainable practices are adopted. In this context, and building on social psychology theories, the present study proposes and tests a causal model encompassing tourists’ Willingness To Pay (WTP) for sustainability in tourist destinations as well as their own sustainability attitudes, namely: Environmental Beliefs, Ecotour Attitudes, and Sustainable Consumption Behaviour. To this end, data were collected through a questionnaire survey of Portuguese tourists (n = 567). The hypothesised relationships between the latent variables were then tested using Structural Equations Modelling (SEM) procedures. The results show that Environmental Beliefs significantly affected both Ecotour Attitudes and Sustainable Consumption Behaviour, and that the latter two significantly affected WTP. However, no significant effect of Environmental Beliefs on WTP was found. These findings provide useful insights for destination managers aiming to more effectively cater to sustainability-oriented tourists. Future research should attempt to assess the role of other determinants of WTP.

Are Potential Tourists Willing to Pay More for Improved Accessibility? Preliminary Evidence from the Gargano National Park

Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, tourist destinations have been increasingly selected on the basis of health, safety and social distancing criteria. In this framework, protected natural areas represent ideal tourist destinations due to the presence of wide and open spaces, services for tourists and attention to nature. The present paper focused on accessible tourism, a subset of sustainable tourism that is increasingly gaining greater importance within the tourism sector. By applying the Contingent Valuation Method, the study investigated whether potential tourists are effectively willing to pay extra money to be granted more accessible facilities in a natural area. To this end, a logit model was estimated to determine the probability that tourists exhibit a higher WTP for accessible tourism facilities. The analysis was carried out in the Gargano National Park, Southern Italy, an area traditionally characterised by large tourist flows that have increased further during the recent pandemic. The results showed that only a limited percentage of the respondents are willing to pay a higher amount for improved accessibility. These results represent an interesting starting point to outline an adequate strategy for the tourism valorisation of the natural area.

An Exploratory Analysis of Museum Attributes from the Perspective of Tourists and Residents: The Case of Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid, Spain

Attribute evaluation provides an understanding of the perceived quality and subjective value of the museum visitor experience. The principal contribution of this paper is to analyze the attributes perceived by tourists and the local community (Madrid residents) of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (Madrid, Spain), utilizing the results from choice experiment and willingness-to-pay questionnaires. To analyze in depth the assessment regarding the museum attributes and the visitor perceptions of them, the relevance-determination model was applied. Data collection was achieved with a questionnaire using a convenience sample of international tourists and the local community, providing a total of 775 valid surveys. The results of the application of the relevance-determination analysis (RDA) show that there are two types of attributes: higher-impact core and lower-importance attributes. The attributes with the highest subjective value perceived by interviewed tourists and interviewed residents are the location, the building, and the permanent collection. These results show that there are substantial differences between the perception and appreciation of these attributes by interviewed residents and interviewed tourists. The results provide valuable information that can be applied in practice to devise strategies for economic and socio-cultural sustainability aimed at improving decision-making in museum management.

Impact of Experiential Value of Augmented Reality: The Context of Heritage Tourism

The use of information boards tends to be regulated in many heritage sites to preserve these cultural heritage places. Although augmented reality (AR) has become a major approach for reducing negative experiences due to restrictions, limited studies have been conducted to understand the effect of AR experiential value on destination-related behavior. Accordingly, the current work aims to investigate how the multidimensional components of AR experiential value (i.e., visual appeal, entertainment, enjoyment, and escapism) affect supportive behavior through AR satisfaction and experiential authenticity. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is performed to test the relationships. Results show that visual appeal, entertainment, and enjoyment exert significant positive effects on destination authenticity and AR satisfaction, ultimately increasing the supportive behavior of an individual. By contrast, escapism does not exhibit a substantial influence on experiential authenticity and AR satisfaction. These findings help practitioners and researchers create competitive advantages for destinations and improve tourist–destination relationships.

Tourist willingness to pay for local green hotel certification

This study aims to understand tourists’ willingness to pay a price premium for a local green hotel certification, and is one of only a few in the literature for small-island tourism destinations in emerging economies with their unique and pressing sustainability challenges. In a survey of 535 tourists visiting Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, facing numerous waste management and coral reef conservation issues, the willingness to pay extra for sustainable hotel services was elicited. There were five discrete pricing levels across the surveys that ranged from $0.75 USD to $7.50 USD extra per night. We examined the relationship of the respondents’ payment choice to their socio-demographic attributes and attitudes regarding environmental issues such as climate change. The main findings and practical implications of the study are: (1) to demonstrate the broad willingness to pay for sustainable hotel services. Findings indicate at all price levels (between $0.75 USD and $7.50 USD), more than 50% of tourists are willing to pay. (2) To estimate a lower bound mean willingness to pay per night for a local green hotel certificate of $1.55USD and 1.34€ EUR, and (3) To identify individual attributes that influence willingness to pay. Findings indicate environmental knowledge and preferences play a role. These results can be used generally to incorporate evidence-based practices into the development of a green hotel marketing strategy, and to help define the target market for small-scale green hotel certification. Additionally, we propose a finance strategy for funding local and sustainable initiatives that support the hotel industry and the island’s infrastructure through the premiums collected from the ’Gili Green Award’ certificate.

Going beyond Good Intentions for the Sustainable Conservation of Built Heritage: A Systematic Literature Review

This research addresses the performance gap between intentions towards a sustainable conservation of built heritage and its actual implementation. Socio-psychological models of human behaviour, such as the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), have been studying this dissonance between intention and behaviour, and allow to recognise latent critical factors. This paper provides a systematic literature review of research publications on the intersection of the topics of human behaviour, heritage, and sustainability. It aims to analyse how the TPB has been used in the field of sustainable conservation of built heritage. The studies are categorised according to the type of heritage, main actors targeted, aims, and methodology. A total of 140 publications were analysed. The results show a recent field of research. In the domain of built heritage conservation, behaviour is commonly addressed as a synonym of performance, targeting the building itself. Most publications relating socio-psychological constructs of behaviour and heritage sustainability can be found in the tourism and hospitality field, focusing on tourists’ and residents’ behaviours. The review shows that practitioners are still absent from the literature. However, research addressing other stakeholders shows that the theoretical framework can play an important role in the implementation of sustainable conservation practices in the built heritage.

Understanding the Tourists’ Perspective of Sustainability in Cultural Tourist Destinations

Considering the tourists’ viewpoint when creating a sustainable destination is crucial since marketing may be the driving force behind many sustainability initiatives. However, most of the literature has followed a supply-based perspective, ignoring the way that tourists view sustainability attributes. Therefore, this research attempts to address this gap in the literature by analyzing tourists’ perceptions concerning sustainability attributes in tourist destinations. This research aims to determine which of these traits are seen as most important by the tourists and to ascertain their willingness to pay for these aspects. The study is quantitative, based on an online questionnaire administered to Turkish cultural tourists. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are used to obtain insights into how tourists consider sustainability aspects in tourist destinations. Thus, this research concludes that tourists view sustainability from a more varied perspective than that embraced by the classic definition of the concept, which comprises economic, environmental and socio-cultural dimensions. The findings of the study also determine that tourists favor sustainability attributes that are instrumental in enhancing their own tourist experiences. This information may be useful for destinations, providing guidance about how to market sustainable tourist destinations and encourage responsible tourism choices.