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Abstract
Encouraging positive public behaviour change has been touted as a pathway for mitigating the climate impacts of air travel. There is, however, growing evidence that two gaps, one between attitudes and behaviour, and the other between practices of “home” and “away”, pose significant barriers to changing discretionary air travel behaviour. This paper uses both modern sociological theory on tourism as liminoid space, and postmodern theory that views identities as contextual, to provide a deeper understanding of why these gaps occur in the context of tourism spaces. Based on 50 in-depth consumer interviews in Australia, Norway and the United Kingdom, our findings confirm that tourism spaces are often subject to lower levels of environmental concern than daily domestic contexts. The majority of participants reduced, suppressed or abandoned their climate concern when in tourism spaces, and rationalised their resulting behavioural contradictions. Only a minority held there was no difference between the environmental sustainability of their practices in domestic situations versus those on holiday. These findings suggest that scope for voluntary positive behaviour change in the air travel context is limited and will not come without stronger intervention, which is a key finding for policy makers seeking reductions in air travel's climate impacts.
发展可持续性的自由决定的飞机旅行行为的社会学障碍
鼓励正面的公共行为改变已经被吹捧为减轻飞机旅行的气候影响的途径。但是，有增长的证明表示存在两大缺陷，一是在态度和行为之间的缺陷，二是在``家''和``离家''的实践上，这些成为对改变自由决定的飞机旅行行为造成重要的障碍。该文章使用现代社会学理论将旅游作为类过渡空间，同时使用后现代理论将特性看成概念化的，来对为什么这些缺陷在旅游领域里出现提供更深的理解。根据在澳大利亚，挪威和英国的50个深度采访，我们的发现证明旅游空间与日常国内环境相比经常被看作是比较低程度的环境认识。大部分的参与者当在旅游空间中往往会减少，抑制或放弃他们的气候考虑，并且合理化他们之后造成的行为矛盾。只有少数对在国内环境和度假的时候的环境可持续性是没有区别的。这些结论建议在飞机旅行环境中资源积极的行为改变的角度是非常有限的，并且如果没有更强的调解时出不来的，这是一个对政策制订者寻求减少对飞机旅行气候影响的主要结论。
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Scott A. Cohen
Scott A. Cohen is a senior lecturer in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Surrey, UK. He primarily researches sociological and consumer behaviour issues in tourism, leisure and mobility contexts, with a particular interest in the impacts of air travel on climate change.
James E.S. Higham
James E.S. Higham holds the position of professor, Department of Tourism, University of Otago (New Zealand) and visiting professor of sustainable tourism, Norwegian School of Hotel Management (Norway). His research interests address tourism and global environmental change across global-local scales of analysis, with a specific focus at present on global climate change, personal aeromobility and behaviour change.
Arianne C. Reis
Arianne C. Reis is a research fellow with the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, at Southern Cross University, Australia. Her research interests lie within the broader theme of sustainability of tourism and leisure practices, with a particular focus on social and environmental justice.