Weather sensitivity and climate change perceptions of tourists: a segmentation analysis

ABSTRACT

Many communities rely on tourism spending, so it is important to understand any potential changes to tourist flows resulting from changing climate and weather patterns. However, tourists are not a homogenous group, as they have different motivations, values, and goals. Therefore, the purpose of this investigation is to better understand potentially varying perceptions and behavior of different tourist types, specifically in regards to their weather sensitivity, climate change concern, and behavioral intention for climate change mitigation. Tourists were randomly surveyed at 20 locations throughout the state of Maine in the United States (n = 704). Segmentation analysis on the activities tourists participated in yielded three segments of Maine tourists: non-nature-based tourists (50.6%), nature-based generalists (16.2%), and nature-based specialists (33.2%). Differences across segments were explored for perceptions of weather impacts, climate change concern, and mitigation intent. Additionally, weather sensitivity was analyzed based on type of overnight accommodations to better understand if this also had a role in differences. Non-nature-based tourists thought that weather variables were less influential during their travels in Maine than the other segments, while nature-based generalists perceived weather to have the highest influence. Additionally, nature-based specialists had the highest level of climate change belief, while nature-based generalists had the highest willingness to engage in climate change mitigation behavior. Results are useful to understand how segments of tourism demand may be altered with a changing climate, such as increased temperatures, precipitation, and storms, and what groups may be the most beneficial to target for marketing or educational efforts to reduce the impact of climate change.

摘要

很多社区依赖旅游花费, 因此了解旅游流针对气候与天气变化而具有的潜在变化是很重要的。然而, 旅游者并不是一个同质化的群体, 他们有不同的旅游动机、价值观与旅游目的。因此, 本文的目的是深入理解不同类型旅游者对天气变化敏感度、气候变化关注度以及缓解气候变化的行为意图的潜在的多样化的认知与行为。本次调查对缅因州20个地点的旅游者进行随机调查 (样本量为704) 。本文对旅游者参与的活动进行聚类分析, 产生三种类型旅游者:非自然旅游者 (占50.6%) 、通才型自然旅游者 (占16.2%) 和专家型自然旅游者 (占33.2%) 。然后, 本文探讨了各个旅游者细分群体对气候影响、气候变化关注度与缓冲行为方面的认知差异。为了较好地理解过夜住宿对上述认知行为差异是否有影响, 我们根据旅游者的过夜住宿类型分析了他们对天气敏感度方面的差异, 发现非自然旅游者比其他类型旅游者认为, 天气变量在缅因州旅行中较不重要, 而通才型自然旅游者认为天气变量最为重要。另外, 专家型自然旅游者相信气候变化的程度最高, 而通才型自然旅游者有最强的意愿参与气候变化的缓解行为。本结果有助于理解不同旅游需求群体伴随诸如气温升高、降雨和风暴等气候变化而变化的过程, 以及如果为减少气候变化的影响而向旅游者进行宣传教育, 对哪种类型的旅游者宣传教育效果最好。

KEYWORDS:

• Nature-based tourism
• travel behavior
• Maine
• cluster analysis
• outdoor recreation
• civic engagement

关键词:

• 自然旅游
• 旅游行为
• 缅因州
• 聚类分析
• 户外游憩
• 公民参与

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Maine Office of Tourism, Acadia National Park, Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, Baxter State Park Authority, Bangor International Airport, and the Bethel Chamber of Commerce for their support and willingness to allow visitor surveys. The authors are also grateful to Lydia Horne, Matt Scaccia, and Ashley Cooper for their contribution to the data collection, to Washington State University for hosting the online survey, and to Dr Lena Le for reviewing the survey instrument. Special thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agricultre [grant number 1003857]; University of Maine Office of the President.

Notes on contributors

Emily Wilkins

Emily Wilkins earned her M.S. at the University of Maine and is now a PhD student in the department of Environment and Society at Utah State University.

Sandra de Urioste-Stone

Sandra de Urioste-Stone, PhD, is an assistant professor of nature-based tourism at the University of Maine. She has done work on sustainable tourism, community-based tourism, human dimensions of biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development.

Aaron Weiskittel

Aaron Weiskittel, PhD, is an associate professor of forest biometrics and modeling at the University of Maine. He is the Irving Chair of Forest Ecosystem Management and his primary focus is on the development of applied quantitiative tools.

Todd Gabe

Todd Gabe, PhD, is a professor of economics at the University of Maine. He teaches and conducts research in the area of regional economics, and has studied tourism-related topics such as the impacts of cruise ship passengers in Maine.