Trait and image interaction: In Ecotourism Preference

Understanding the complex interactions between ecotourists and ecodestinations is important to ecotourism decision making, including regulatory, operating, and marketing decisions. We introduce a methodology and statistical model designed to separate cleanly the complex relations between the ecotourist traits of attitude towards the environment and involvement with ecotourism, and the ecodestination images defined by the degree to which nature, learning, sustainability, and infrastructure development are perceived to be part of a destination. The model allows the sensitivities of preferences to ecotourist traits to depend on their image of destinations, and allows a random component, rather than modeling and estimating sensitivities as fixed parameters. The conceptual framework, model formulation, and a guide for interpreting the calibrated model are presented.