Are mass tourists sensitive to sustainability?

Abstract

Transition management to tourism sustainability is fundamental for mature and mass tourism destinations. While the literature has largely focused on residents’ evaluations of tourism sustainability, little attention has been devoted to investigate tourists’ perceptions and relevance of environmental practices at the destination. This study fills this gap by analyzing tourists’ evaluations of environmental sustainability experienced during their holiday at a mass and mature tourism destination, by focusing on both tourism-based and complementary products. Mapping and cluster analysis are carried out on a sample of tourists who have chosen an Italian mass and mature tourism destination for their holidays. Findings show that sustainability is a less relevant factor and provides less satisfaction with respect to other aspects. Tourist expectations on environmental sustainability are not met; different perceptions and priorities on environmental sustainability are detected in the different tourist clusters. Managerial and policy strategies can be derived from these results.