Ways of the green tourist in Europe

Abstract

In 2015, one third of European citizens paid attention to environmentally-friendly practices or certificates when choosing accommodation or destination for their main holiday, although only about 16 per cent considered a mode of transportation with low impact on the environment. Using 20,000 individual observations from the Flash Eurobarometer, a Bivariate Probit model is employed to estimate the characteristics of green tourists in Europe, that is, those who consider environmentally-friendly transportations, practices or labels as important for the choice of holiday. Both the large representative cross-country dataset and the joint modelling of destination and transportation preferences are novel contributions to the literature. Results reveal that contemplating an environmentally-friendly destination depends significantly on a bundle of socio-demographic and contextual characteristics, where country of residence is the most important factor. Nature seeking and sports tourists, persons who travel with a partner and women are more likely to find environmental issues relevant for their choice of holiday, while older and highly skilled persons do not. Those who pay attention to both environmentally-friendly destinations and transportation modes in their choice of holiday belong to the group of green tourists that mainly spend their holidays domestically, or take a particular interest in nature-based outdoor activities.