Accommodation, Seasonality and Domestic Tourism to National Parks: Implications for Environmental Policy

Abstract

The analysis of seasonality and domestic tourism from the perspective of the accommodation sector has, to date, been unsatisfactorily studied in the domain of visitors to national parks. In light of the scale of accommodation development and its crucial role in tourism, most notably with regard to environmental impact, in-depth knowledge about accommodation market segments and their specific characteristics and patterns of behavior are integral to the development of tourism policy. In the context of domestic tourism, underpinned by an understanding of the theory of planned behavior and push-and-pull motivations, this study examines seasonality and accommodation type used by visitors to national parks in the small islands of the Canaries, Spain with the objective being to design the most appropriate environmental tourism policy. By adopting a Multinomial logistic regression model with 1671 surveys carried out, the study concludes that domestic visitors demonstrate a higher propensity to select environmental-friendly accommodation types during the high season. At the same time, residents who visit the parks in high season assess the lowest value to the preservation level of the parks’ natural resources.