Towards sustainable tourism: Analyzing tourists' environmental values, preferences and willingness to pay for nature-based tourism in Gran Canaria, Spain.

Abstract

This thesis contributes to an enhanced academic understanding of sustainable tourism consumption in Gran Canaria. Tourism offers in rural areas represent more sustainable alternatives to traditional 3S (sea, sun and sand) mass tourism on the island. The study focuses on a young tourist segment with great potential that will shape the future of travel, where two crucial customer segments of the Spanish and the German markets were researched. The study is based on a discrete choice experiment (DCE) that incorporates types of ecotourism accommodations as well as different rural tourism activity clusters: active, passive, cultural, and aquatic. The thesis consists of three respective studies with different approaches and objectives. Study one (Chapter I), “Rural tourism activities in mass tourism destinations: residents vs non-residents perspectives” focuses on the understanding of tourists’ preferences and willingness to pay for various holiday packages in the remote area of Veneguera in Gran Canaria, Spain. Results reveal that the inclusion of the investigated attributes in holiday packages increases tourists’ utility, which indicates the existence of an interest in rural vacation for the sample. Furthermore, significant differences in perceptions of attributes between residents and non-residents were found. The concern of study two (Chapter II) is “Analyzing preference heterogeneity and willingness to pay for nature-based tourism activities in Gran Canaria for young Germans”. The results not only prove that preferences in this important market segment are highly significant and heterogeneous, but also find correlations between preferences and socio-demographic variables. Furthermore, willingness to pay values are analyzed, which help to improve pricing strategies for alternative tourism offers. Study three (Chapter III), “Young Segment Attitudes towards the Environment and Their Impact on Preferences for Sustainable Tourism Products” focused on the question of how tourists’ environmental concerns influence choice behavior of nature-based tourists in Gran Canaria. The results confirm the hypothesis and identify three latent factors behind environmental concerns: Community Support (CS), Nature Interaction (NI) and Nature Connection (NC). A better understanding of this niche market will contribute to the sustainable development of Gran Canaria, as well as to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which are set out in the island’s tourism strategy.