Marketing Strategies for Responsible Tourism: Challenges and Opportunities
Journal Title: Journal of Emerging Trends in Marketing and Management - Year 2017, Vol 0, Issue 1
Abstract
On a global scene, concerns about global warming, destruction of the environment, erosion of cultures and lifestyles, and millions of people still living in poverty, are increasing (International Centre for Responsible Tourism, 2012). The number of initiatives aimed at saving some part of the environment, or improving the living conditions for the world’s vulnerable people, increases steadily. According to the Ethical Consumer Markets Report (2012:2) markets for ethical goods and services have remained resilient throughout the economic downturn. Tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing economic sectors. In 2015 the number of international tourist arrivals surpassed 1.2 billion with a forecast to reach 1.8 billion in 2030 according to the UNWTO. Within this continuing growth of tourism there is a growing trend and a raising consumer awareness for sustainable and responsible tourism. Since more than 90% of tourism companies in EU are small businesses, individual entrepreneurs or family houses, they do not have a capacity to exploit the opportunities offered by these new ‘green’ markets. Present paper provides results from a transnational study among micro and small tourist companies in seven EU countries - the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, and Malta. The research is conducted online and focuses on the attitudes toward CSR, the effect of CSR on company strategy, including marketing and brand strategy. Based on research results several implications about marketing strategies for responsible tourism initiatives launched by micro and small companies are presented.
Authors and Affiliations
Bistra Vassileva
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP265676
- DOI -
- Views 113
- Downloads 0
Why Do Customers Use Smartphones for Shopping in Omnichannel Environments? Proposition and Testing the Factor Structure of Items for Customer–Smartphone Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM)
The usage of smartphones is influencing more and more customers' behaviours and shopping processes. Customers use smartphones, for instance, to buy directly (so-called mobile shopping) or to prepare their shopping within...
Challenging the Negative Image of Destinations at Pre-visit Stage Using Food and Food Events as an Educational Tool: The Case of Romania
Destinations with a negative image struggle to attract tourists (Alvarez and Campo, 2014). Research addressing the issues of these destinations remains limited. Séraphin, Butcher and Korstanje (2016) have provided eviden...
CSR and Sustainable Development – Two Concepts with Different Beginnings and a Common Future
The concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable development have emerged as separate independent units in different historical periods, but today their content, orientation and tools are basically i...
Research of Commercialization Models of Scientific Developments in Projects of Technological Entrepreneurship
The article is devoted to the development a system of training future entrepreneurs for commercialization of scientific developments, which come from the Institute of Applied Physics the Russian Academy of Sciences (IAF...
Commodities Produced by Religious Communities on the Food Market: Competitive Advantage or Ruining Reputation?
Recently the ecosystem of religious life had gone through radical changes: by the emerging of new religious movements the choices became freer than previously. Being born into a religious group does not necessarily mean...