Encouraging behavioural change towards sustainable tourism: a German approach to free public transport for tourists

ABSTRACT

Constantly growing transport demand by tourists within holiday destinations and related increases in CO₂ emissions have helped foster a new trend amongst German destinations towards promoting a green transportation mode for vacationers. A key innovation is the “Gästeticket” or Guest Ticket concept, which offers tourists free public transport, on buses and trains, within defined destination areas throughout their stay. This paper describes the background to this concept, and the many different ways in which it has been created, designed, implemented and administered. A qualitative research methodology interviewed key public and private sector stakeholders, including local and regional politicians, accommodation providers, public transport providers and public transport authorities to identify favourable starting conditions, successful financial and institutional implementation strategies, and both supporters and opponents of guest tickets. Local politicians and many small accommodation providers opposed the concept, while regional and national politicians supported it, as did public transport providers and public transport authorities. The concept is compared to the more holistic Alpine Pearls concept founded in Austria, and the case made for better explanation of the Guest Ticket concept to its opponents, better marketing, further research and closer cooperation between transport providers and planners with tourism attractions and accommodation providers.

KEYWORDS:

• Transport planning
• tourism destinations
• sustainable tourism
• public transport
• mobility
• rural tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Werner Gronau

Dr Werner Gronau is Professor of Tourism, Travel & Transport at the University of Applied Sciences Stralsund, Germany and is affiliated to the University of Bergamo/Italy as Adjunct Professor. He holds a degree in Human Geography from the Technical University of Munich and a PhD in Mobility Studies (Leisure mobility and leisure style) from the University of Paderborn. He is member of several research groups in the field of Tourism and Transport, including the Transport Geography Research Group of the British Royal Geographical Society, the German Society of Tourism Research (DGT) and the German Transport Geography Research Group (Arbeitskreis Verkehr). He is the chief editor of the transport journal Studies on Mobility and Transport Research. His research focuses on Sustainable Transport Management and tourism-related transport issues. He has worked in several research projects, with clients including the German Ministry of Research and the European Commission.