Experiencing islands: is sustainability reported in tourists’ online reviews?

ABSTRACT

Sustainable experiences are a key component of functioning sustainable destinations. Therefore, it is important to know the spectrum of tourist experiences to determine whether sustainable experiences are present in them. The article aims to analyse the experiences gained and shared via TripAdvisor by tourists visiting three Baltic islands: Wolin, Bornholm and Gotland. The researchers used mixed methods: quantitative (text mining) and qualitative (narrative research). All reviews posted on TripAdvisor concerning the islands' tourist attractions have been scraped. Many experiences related to sustainability were found to differentiate between the studied islands. Most of the sustainable experiences were related to nature, forests and plants. The atmosphere and authenticity distinguish the experiences in Bornholm, the forest and wildlife in Wolin, and plants and flowers in Gotland. The example of the studied islands shows that effective targeting of sustainable tourism in these destinations still requires a lot of effort, including well-thought-out designing of tourist experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• (sustainable) experiences
• tripadvisor
• text mining
• tourism
• Baltic islands

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).