Air travel attitude functions

Abstract

Forecast growth in global demand for air travel is incompatible with emissions reduction targets. Scholarly attention is urgently needed to address attitude and behaviour change that supports sector-wide emissions reduction. Informed by the longstanding field of consumer psychology, the innovative approach adopted in this paper is to critically address air travel behaviour change through the application of attitude function theory. An analysis of the literature reveals that current attitudes reflect industry myths, and are further hampered by travellers’ knowledge gaps regarding the relationship between aviation and climate change. Five attitude functions are analysed in the context of attitudes to air travel; knowledge, utilitarian, value-expressive, ego-defensive and social adjustive functions. A conceptual framework is presented that integrates attitude structure, attitude function and the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion as an innovative approach to address discretionary air travel and behaviour change at the level of the individual consumer. Utilizing this framework, future research can help develop a critical understanding of the antecedents that shape attitudes. Researchers will be better positioned to create persuasive messages aimed at changing attitudes towards air travel, as arguably the key step towards the illusive goal of significant behaviour change and a shift towards more sustainable tourist mobilities.

Keywords:

• Air travel
• attitude functions
• attitude change
• elaboration likelihood model of persuasion

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to this research, authorship, or potential publication of the material.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research or authorship of this publication.

Notes on contributors

Nicole Cocolas

Nicole Cocolas is undertaking her PhD at the University of Queensland’s Business School. Her current PhD research is focused on understanding attitudes towards air travel. Her research interest more broadly is in tourism and climate change. Nicole has worked as a Research Assistant with the University of Queensland on a number of projects ranging from policy responses to climate change, risk travel behaviour and indigenous tourism.

Gabrielle Walters

Dr Gabrielle Walters' primary research interests revolve around tourism marketing communications, tourist behaviour and tourism crisis recovery. Currently, she is working on a series of studies that seek to investigate the impact that Terrorism related activity is likely to have on travel behaviour and tourist decision making. Dr Walters has led a number of industry consultancy projects for both state and regional tourism organisations within Australia and has been invited on several occasions to deliver key note addresses on brand image recovery to destinations that have been affected by some form of crises or natural disaster.

She has spoken of her research findings at a number of international conferences and she has over 35 publications that include acclaimed academic journals, University text books and edited research books. Prior to her University career, Dr Walters spent 16 years in the hospitality industry.

Lisa Ruhanen

Dr Lisa Ruhanen (PhD, GCEd, BBusHons) is an Associate Professor and the Tourism Postgraduate Coursework Program Coordinator. She has been involved in almost 30 academic and consultancy research projects in Australia and overseas. Her research areas include sustainable tourism destination policy and planning, climate change and Indigenous tourism.

Lisa has worked extensively as a consultant, external collaborator and executive committee member with a variety of divisions of the United Nations World Tourism Organization. In 2010 Lisa was awarded a fellowship under the Oxford Brookes University International Visiting Fellow Scheme in the United Kingdom.

James Higham

James Higham is a Professor at the University of Otago (New Zealand), Visiting Professor of Sustainable Tourism at the University of Stavanger (Norway) (2008-2018) and Jim Whyte Fellow, University of Queensland (Australia) (2016-2017). His research interests generally address tourism, sustainable development and environmental change, and the interplay of sport and tourism.

James has two current streams of research, one of which focuses on the wider field of environmental change. In 2009 he initiated a research programme titled ‘Climate change and long-haul aviation’ which has brought him into international research and publication collaborations with academics internationally. His research on climate change and aviation continues to extend in recent years.