Stated preferences of tourists for eco-efficient destination planning options

Eco-efficiency is a concept that prescribes reducing the amount of energy and natural resources used, as well as wastes and pollutants discharged in the production of goods and services. Numerous approaches to achieving greater levels of eco-efficiency have been suggested for tourism operations and destinations. However, none of these options have been examined with respect to tourist responses to them. This paper uses a discrete choice experiment to examine visitor preferences for a set of hypothetical tourism destination eco-efficiency strategies. Visitors preferred “eco-efficient” planning options to business-as-usual scenarios. The degree of support for the various planning options differed by market segments. Overall, tourist support existed for many options that could increase the overall eco-efficiency of destinations. Visitors were also willing to tolerate additional fees for services that might help to offset the environmental impacts of their behaviours. By having respondents evaluate and trade-off several resort eco-efficiency strategies simultaneously, the discrete choice experiment provided a more comprehensive and realistic assessment of eco-efficiency options than would be possible using traditional survey methods.