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This article examines the emergence of the “soft‐ecotourism” market and measures the extend of familiarity with ecotourism and the willingness of resort travellers to substitute, partially or totally, their vacation with an ecotourism experience. education, income and age are positively associated with ecotourism, while women and singles are a more in favour towards a substitution to ecotourism. The study indicates that there is confusion as to what constitutes ecotourism and the authors suggest that tourism agencies should be more actively engaged in explaining ecotourism to their potential clients.

Originally conceptualised as an innovative strategy for environmental conservation, ecotourism is now considered as one of the fastest growing segments of tourism. Although many definitions of ecotourism have been provided over the years, the application of the concept is still inconsistent, shifting its focus from purely nature-based towards more sustainable and conservative activities. Research on ecotourism reveals that ecotourism marketing initiatives are mainly driven by the supply-side or government/environmentalist organisations’ perspective, without taking into account the demand side, i.e., individuals’ motivations for ecotourism. This chapter will provide recognition of the different definitions of the ecotourism concept in order to distinguish it from other similar forms of tourism, e.g., nature-based tourism, and will review the research to build an understanding of the various motivations pushing individuals to choose ecotourism offerings. It will also function as the basis for the development of an appropriate protocol to investigate a sample of ecotourism providers and the congruency of their marketing initiatives with established consumer motivations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore festivalgoer/camper perceptions of and responses to the non-urban festival service environment (blended festivalscape).

For this exploratory study a quantitative approach was adopted. A self-administered online survey was administered to recipient members of an Australian non-urban festival e-newsletter database resulting in 398 usable responses from festival campers.

Environmental beliefs held by festival campers’ influenced their perceptions of naturescape, socialscape and overall satisfaction. Festival campers’ who attended more than once were found to have stronger pro-environmental beliefs than those who attended once. Festival camper perception of naturescape has a positive moderating influence leading to greater overall satisfaction and the likelihood of repeat attendance and positive word-of-mouth.

It is very important to know how festivalgoers perceive and relate to their festival service environment. Critical to the appeal and success of the non-urban festival is the alignment of festivalgoer environmental beliefs to the natural setting in which they are held. Limitations include use of a single case study context.

This paper responds to lack of research on non-urban festivals when compared to urban festivals and the surprisingly little interest shown in the central role of natural settings and the camping experience. A closer understanding of the environmental beliefs of campers at non-urban festivals has the potential to provide beneficial outcomes for people, profit and planet.