Optimizing or maximizing? A challenge to sustainable tourism.
(2015) In Journal of Sustainable Tourism- Abstract
- Virtually all destinations seek to increase tourist numbers, pursuing economic maximization strategies. Considerably less attention is paid to optimizing existing tourist systems to create more profitable, stable, resilient and potentially more sustainable entities. While aspects of tourist expenditure, average length of stay and seasonality as three key destination management variables have received considerable attention in the literature, focus has usually been on the identification of “profitable” tourism markets by considering observed patterns of spending, length of stay and vacation timing. Building on such earlier studies, this paper focuses on flexibilities in these parameters: could tourists have spent more, stayed longer or... (More)
- Virtually all destinations seek to increase tourist numbers, pursuing economic maximization strategies. Considerably less attention is paid to optimizing existing tourist systems to create more profitable, stable, resilient and potentially more sustainable entities. While aspects of tourist expenditure, average length of stay and seasonality as three key destination management variables have received considerable attention in the literature, focus has usually been on the identification of “profitable” tourism markets by considering observed patterns of spending, length of stay and vacation timing. Building on such earlier studies, this paper focuses on flexibilities in these parameters: could tourists have spent more, stayed longer or visited during a different season? Perceptions of destination expensiveness as a potential deterrent to visitation were also addressed. Based on a sample (n = 1914) of domestic and international tourists in the Swedish cities of Kalmar and Stockholm, data were collected in face-to-face interviews using questionnaires. Results indicate considerable potential to optimize the Swedish tourism system with regard to all variables studied, while also providing new insights for destination management in the context of economic resilience. Results also indicate the need for researchers everywhere to have detailed market knowledge if they are to persuade the industry to change its sustainability behavior. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8168267
- author
- Gössling, Stefan LU ; Ring, Amata ; Dwyer, Larry ; Andersson, Ann-Christin and Hall, C.Michael
- organization
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- average length of stay, destination management, expenditure, seasonality, sustainability, vulnerability
- in
- Journal of Sustainable Tourism
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84945368077
- ISSN
- 0966-9582
- DOI
- 10.1080/09669582.2015.1085869
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- First published online: 29 Oct 2015
- id
- 3f8a74bd-d234-42db-a51f-529508606011 (old id 8168267)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:02:48
- date last changed
- 2023-01-02 00:36:23
@article{3f8a74bd-d234-42db-a51f-529508606011,
abstract = {{Virtually all destinations seek to increase tourist numbers, pursuing economic maximization strategies. Considerably less attention is paid to optimizing existing tourist systems to create more profitable, stable, resilient and potentially more sustainable entities. While aspects of tourist expenditure, average length of stay and seasonality as three key destination management variables have received considerable attention in the literature, focus has usually been on the identification of “profitable” tourism markets by considering observed patterns of spending, length of stay and vacation timing. Building on such earlier studies, this paper focuses on flexibilities in these parameters: could tourists have spent more, stayed longer or visited during a different season? Perceptions of destination expensiveness as a potential deterrent to visitation were also addressed. Based on a sample (n = 1914) of domestic and international tourists in the Swedish cities of Kalmar and Stockholm, data were collected in face-to-face interviews using questionnaires. Results indicate considerable potential to optimize the Swedish tourism system with regard to all variables studied, while also providing new insights for destination management in the context of economic resilience. Results also indicate the need for researchers everywhere to have detailed market knowledge if they are to persuade the industry to change its sustainability behavior.}},
author = {{Gössling, Stefan and Ring, Amata and Dwyer, Larry and Andersson, Ann-Christin and Hall, C.Michael}},
issn = {{0966-9582}},
keywords = {{average length of stay; destination management; expenditure; seasonality; sustainability; vulnerability}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Journal of Sustainable Tourism}},
title = {{Optimizing or maximizing? A challenge to sustainable tourism.}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2015.1085869}},
doi = {{10.1080/09669582.2015.1085869}},
year = {{2015}},
}