Who travels more, and why? A mixed-method study of urban dwellers’ leisure travel

Abstract

This study examined domestic and international long-distance travel patterns of Reykjavik residents. We applied a mixed-methods approach with data triangulation to three datasets, two quantitative and one qualitative. Quantitative analyses included bivariate statistics, spatial statistics, and regression, and qualitative analysis included an explanatory interpretation of semi-structured interviews. The study found a higher number of international trips made by people residing close to the main city centre, particularly among younger adults. Following previous literature, we studied five potential groups of explanations of these patterns: 1) socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, 2) monetary rebound effects, 3) compensation or escape hypothesis, 4) lifestyles and other socio-psychological characteristics, and 5) dispersion of social networks. We found that all these aspects explain the travel activity to some extent, but inconsistently across the different datasets except for the well-known impact of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. However, above all else, a cosmopolitan attitude in travel and language skill level were found to be the most influential predictors of international travel activity, and access to a summer house was an important predictor of domestic travel activity. Broad social networks were also found to play an important role. Despite geographical trends, the study did not find any strong causal relationship between urban form and long-distance travel that would influence the aggregate patterns. Thus, the results do not challenge the urban planning policies of densification on the premise of causing an unintended increase in emissions from long-distance travel.