The Long Road to Low-Carbon Holidays: Exploring Holiday-Making Behaviour of People Living in a Middle-Sized Swiss City

Abstract

Decarbonising holiday travel is crucial for climate change mitigation: policy interventions need to encourage less frequent trips, closer destinations, and travelling on the ground. To increase effectiveness, interventions should fit with the specific ways holidays are perceived and performed in each context. We explore the holiday behaviour of people living in a medium-sized city in Southern Switzerland (Lugano, 70,000 inhabitants), with the aim of identifying key intervention strategies for a future “community challenge” encouraging the population to take low-carbon holidays. We combine a literature review with n = 15 qualitative, semi-structured interviews that allow us to understand the reasons for taking a holiday, the favourite destination and activity types, and the transport mode choices. As Switzerland is characterised by high cultural and linguistic diversity providing the feeling of being abroad even at a short distance from home, it could be a valuable holiday destination for Swiss people themselves. Located at the centre of Europe, it is also well-connected by train with many holiday destinations abroad. Gaps between pro-environmental attitudes and holiday behaviour suggest leveraging digital carbon trackers showing how carbon emissions compare between holiday and everyday life. Also, interventions could leverage social norms via social networks, local influencers, and travel agencies.