Abstract
Studies have shown that certain modes of tourist development jeopardize the environment, as in the case of mass tourism, especially in areas that require special protection. The goal of this study is to apply a proposal for studying sustainability of tourist mobility to a protected space, the island of Lanzarote, which has been declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. This paper seeks to figure out the mobility patterns of tourists, the criterion used to select a mode of transportation, the attitude of tourists towards the sustainability of transport, and its environmental implications by analyzing secondary sources and interviewing tourists. The results show that the tourism model of the island is based on scattered natural resources that tourists want to enjoy in a tailor-made visit, which makes it hard to give up individual transportation. The only environmentally sustainable alternative is opting for electric vehicles with charging stations in the aforementioned tourist spots.
Highlights
Specific human actions can have a negative impact on natural resources in protected areas if they do not adopt behavior in accordance with principles of sustainability [1]
The concept of tourism is intrinsically associated with mobility, since it appears as a temporary displacement from one’s usual place of residence [4]
Studies on tourist mobility in islands based on direct surveys are scarce in the academic literature, let alone those concerning protected areas, which is why this study offers unique and new information that should be completed with similar studies in similar destinations
Summary
Specific human actions can have a negative impact on natural resources in protected areas if they do not adopt behavior in accordance with principles of sustainability [1]. Tourism is the largest industry in the world and one of the most rapidly growing ones on an international scale [5]. This causes problems, especially in its impact on the environment. In both developed and less-economically developed nations, public sector attention has increasingly focused on the perceived economic benefits of tourism, which has progressively been adopted as a vehicle for the regeneration of rural areas suffering economic decline or deprivation [6]
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