Abstract
Purpose of the study: We study the attitudes and spending propensity towards sustainable tourism products focusing on low energy housing and organic meals offered by an accommodation. In particular, we examine the importance of sustainability concepts to tourists and the factors contributing to higher spending towards sustainable tourism products.
Design/methodology/approach: We survey visitors to an online site offering holiday accommodation and restaurant information about South Tyrol. We collect a data set with 335 observations. We employ best-worst scaling to depict important attributes of sustainable tourism in the minds of the consumer and their stated willingness to increase spending for sustainable tourism products.
Findings: We find that the most important aspects defining sustainable tourism for visitors are related to the experience of nature in an intense and profound way. In terms of sustainable tourism products, food is regarded more important than accommodation. We observe significant differences in the most important aspects of sustainable tourism between visitors from Germany and Italy as well as locals from South Tyrol. Significant factors contributing to the propensity to spend more on low energy accommodation as well as organic meals are age, quality of the accommodation and the frequency of past stays in South Tyrol.
Originality/value: This research is original work on the importance of sustainable tourism aspects to visitors of Alto Adige. It is also a first approach to define indicators that contribute to higher spending towards sustainable tourism products defined through low energy housing and organic food/meals provided through a holiday accommodation.
Research limitations/implications: Further empirical research and theoretical modelling are needed on indicators that influence spending behavior with respect to sustainable tourism products. Open question qualitative research may identify further aspects defining sustainable tourism.
Practical implications: We identify a ranking of important aspects that define sustainable tourism and factors influencing the propensity to spend more on sustainable tourism products that may be useful for tourism operators in their product development.