Sustainability, daily practices and vacation purchasing: are they related?

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore relationships between consumers' sustainable purchasing practices and their related cognitions, evaluations, and beliefs when considering purchases of tourist products or general goods.

Design/methodology/approach

“Cognitions” refers to consumers' familiarity with the concept of “environmentally‐friendly”, their “evaluations” are considerations of the importance of responsible practices, and “beliefs” are convictions of the effects of buying environmentally‐friendly products. Data were collected by questionnaires distributed to convenience samples of 142 passers by on streets close to museums, parks, and other recreational facilities.

Findings

The cognitive, evaluative, and belief dimensions were interrelated and supposedly reflect positive attitudes and/or motivations towards sustainability. These “inclinations‐to‐act variables” were positively related to the appreciation of sustainability in daily purchases, vacation purchases, and tourism provider profiles. The importance of history and culture in relation to tourism purchases was also examined. Sustainability orientation in daily purchases also correlated to vacation purchases and appreciation of tourism providers with sustainability‐oriented profiles.

Research limitations/implications

The study used a small convenience sample and did not measure actual purchasing behavior. Future research should explore the relation between the variables examined in this paper and actual purchasing behavior in a larger random sample of the general population.

Originality/value

Previous related research involved respondents on vacation travel or as non‐representative samples. This study demonstrates relationships between consumers' sustainable purchasing practices of tourist products or general goods and their related cognitions, evaluations, and beliefs when sampling from populations in general.

Citation

Pereira, E.M.V., Mykletun, R.J. and Hippolyte, C. (2012), "Sustainability, daily practices and vacation purchasing: are they related?", Tourism Review, Vol. 67 No. 4, pp. 40-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/16605371211277812