Beyond ecotourism: the environmentally responsible tourist in the general travel experience

A shift of attention from the dominant product-orientation in environmentally sustainable tourism to a demand-orientation has been suggested as a way of minimising the effects of the inherent trade-offs the tourism industry faces between maximization of profits and investment in environmental sustainability. The success of such an approach depends on the existence of a class of tourists who are motivated to take care of the natural surroundings of the host destination, whether they are travelling in an ecotourism or general tourism context. Consequently, the aim of this study is to investigate whether there is empirical evidence for the existence of such a segment among the wider tourism population and if so, how it can be characterised and thus marketed to. Willingness to pay is used as a criterion to define this segment, as it implicitly accounts for the trade-off that suggests that environmental protection comes at a price.