Title: Sustainable tourist attractions and destinations visited by its ecological contribution? A conjoint analysis study

Authors: Carlos Gutiérrez-Marines; Pável Reyes-Mercado

Addresses: School of Business and Economics, Anáhuac Business School México, Av. Universidad Anáhuac 46, Col. Lomas Anáhuac Huixquilucan, Estado de México, C.P. 52786, Mexico ' School of Business and Economics, Anáhuac Business School México, Av. Universidad Anáhuac 46, Col. Lomas Anáhuac Huixquilucan, Estado de México, C.P. 52786, Mexico

Abstract: The conservation of tourist values in terms of cultural heritage and economic, social, and environmental development is a topic that has concerned promoters of global tourism. Tourists choose a sustainable destination weighting the constituent elements of service, infrastructure, and amenities that, in the overall generate an attractive. This study tests the main hypothesis that sustainability yields the highest utility contribution when consumers weight their overall decision about visiting a sustainable destination. It is usual for tourists to decide on a destination after weighting several elements of such destination. Through the use of a conjoint analysis experiment and by collecting a sample of 110 potential visitors of a premium sustainable resort, this paper aims to model the decision of tourists visiting sustainable destinations, according to the level of importance in which they integrate the attributes of the destination. Results show that for tourists who choose a sustainable destination, sustainability provides the maximum utility among the set of attributes that determine the global concept of the destination - price, service, infrastructure and food. Managers should give sustainability a salient aspect into the integral promotion in order to better position a premium sustainable resorts as first election of visitors.

Keywords: sustainable tourism; sustainability; conjoint analysis; sustainable destinations; tourist expectations; hotel and spa attributes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLTM.2018.097232

International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing, 2018 Vol.6 No.2, pp.136 - 152

Received: 20 Apr 2018
Accepted: 14 Aug 2018
Published online: 05 Jan 2019 *

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