The primacy of climate change as the leading global concern in society has been challenged since the COVID-19 pandemic, with uncertainty persisting due to the scarcity of longitudinal studies. This paper aims to assess how the COVID-19 experience has shaped travelers’ long-term concerns about anthropogenic climate change. To better understand climate concerns, three determining factors were considered: negative emotions , personality traits , and risk perceptions. The study uses self-reported information by a large sample of 6,354 European frequent travelers split into three fieldwork waves: (1) December 2020, during the pandemic, (2) March 2023, after travel restrictions, and (3) June 2024, in the “new normal”. Findings reveal that the explanatory weight of the three determinants has changed because of the pandemic. Negative emotions have a greater effect in explaining concerns after the health crisis, alongside varying effects of personality traits and perceived risks. Results confirm that COVID-19 has led to a greater dominance of climate emotions over personality traits and risk perception in shaping concerns. Findings are useful for policymakers and practitioners, as they can use the results to design more tailored communication and to maintain public engagement with climate change amid competing global crises for attention.

Tourism-phobia is a measure of residents’ annoyance by tourism based on the perceived impacts of the activity for their community. Understanding what shapes residents’ opinions on tourism impacts is necessary to comprehend tourism-phobia fully. This paper aims to analyse personal factors that have been insufficiently addressed, such as life satisfaction, length of residence and political leaning to explain residents’ tourism-phobia. A covariance-based structural equation model was used and empirically validated with self-reported information from 300 residents in the Canary Islands (Spain) who filled-in an online questionnaire. The results support previous hypotheses stating that annoyance intensifies when the perceptions of negative impacts (costs) increase and positive perceptions (benefits) decrease. Data also indicate that long-term residents perceive fewer benefits from tourism and are more likely to develop a phobia. Life satisfaction does not directly impact phobia but has an indirect effect due to its capacity to shape how individuals appraise tourism. Finally, a negative indirect effect of political leaning was found. Right-leaning residents perceive tourism as having more benefits than left-leaning residents. The findings provide a broader understanding of the root causes of tourism-phobia and offer a useful framework for identifying residents most sensitive to tourism’s impacts. This ultimately helps plan future management actions to cultivate resident-friendly tourism destinations.

Sustainability has become an important factor in tourism, yet its impact on tourists' destination choices is not fully quantified compared to traditional attributes. This study uses an analytical and operational framework to compare environmental, socio-cultural, and economic sustainability attributes and tourist conventional attributes in influencing tourists' summer holiday decisions. The analysis is based on a sample of 2098 respondents from Austria. The study uses a MaxDiff experiment to derive individual-level importance scores for 18 destination attributes, for sustainable and conventional factors. Overall, conventional destination attributes such as scenery, climate, and value for money outweigh sustainability concerns, while socio-cultural factors receive higher importance among sustainable attributes. In an out of sight, out of mind manner, attributes are valued more when tangible to tourists, such as landscapes, than invisible factors like green electricity. A cluster analysis identified three heterogeneous tourist profiles. A traditional segment focusing on conventional and familiar experiences (44.85%); a pro-environmental cluster prioritising sustainable mobility (38.23%); and a balanced group valuing environmental sustainability with significant cultural awareness, and less emphasis on affordability (16.92%). The discriminant analysis revealed that transport choices, accommodation types, leisure activities, and income levels significantly drive differences among clusters. The findings indicate that socio-cultural sustainability aspects rank higher than environmental aspects. Two segments were identified that could be addressed specifically with low-impact mobility options and premium experiences that safeguard local culture and natural settings.

PurposeVoluntary carbon offsetting (VCO) has emerged as a debated mechanism in sustainable tourism, allowing tourists to compensate for their carbon emissions. However, despite widespread stated willingness to participate, actual engagement remains low. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants influencing participation in VCO schemes and the discrepancy between stated willingness to offset emissions and actual engagement. Design/methodology/approachFollowing PRISMA guidelines, this systematic review analyses 27 empirical studies involving 147,087 participants. The review synthesises key factors shaping VCO participation, including socioeconomic status, environmental awareness, travel patterns and the credibility of offset schemes. FindingsThe findings of this study identify a persistent gap between tourists’ willingness to offset emissions and their actual behaviour. While VCO schemes can enhance environmental awareness, their voluntary nature and credibility concerns significantly limit their impact. The findings suggest that relying solely on VCOs is insufficient to achieve substantial emissions reductions. In addition, complementary policy measures, such as carbon levies and default opt-in mechanisms, could help bridge the distance from environmental intentions to behaviour. Research limitations/implicationsAlthough there is a clear difference between the willingness to offset carbon emissions and actual participation, differences in study designs, sample sizes, national contexts and the subjective nature of reported behaviours may influence the results. Originality/valueThis study provides a comprehensive review of empirical evidence on VCO participation and assesses the hesitation to engage in voluntary mechanisms, linking findings to consumer psychology and policy effectiveness. It provides actionable insights for policymakers, tourism operators and researchers, highlighting the need for regulatory interventions to enhance the effectiveness of carbon mitigation strategies in tourism.

This article aims to analyze factors determining tourist satisfaction with nautical destinations. To this aim, survey data were collected from 255 nautical tourists visiting Cape Verde and an ordinal logit model was used. Data analysis confirms that tourists' satisfaction increases with the diversity and quality of the nautical and cultural offer, and the security offered by the destination, in line with previous research. As novelty, the affective feelings towards the nautical destination were also found as an important antecedent of nautical tourists' satisfaction conformation. The study also confirms that tourists who had been in the archipelago previously do experience a higher level of satisfaction compared with nonrepeaters. Lastly, the fact of visiting other competing nautical destinations influences the level of satisfaction of the nautical tourists in Cape Verde, although not all previously visited destinations have the same impact. This suggests that strategies for nautical tourism development should be more attentive to establish long-lasting relationships and networking structures with some key competitors, and segment their marketing plans according to tourists' past destination choice. The results are of great importance for several destinations seeking to utilize the promotion of nautical activities as a key driver for tourism competitiveness and positioning improvement.

There is scientific consensus that human activity through whale-watching is causing an increasing amount of damage to the natural environment, which poses critical challenges to the goal of sustainability. Based on a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the scientific literature, this study calls for urgent rethinking in regards to whale-watching sustainability. A new, integrative framework for research actions built upon the concept of regenerative tourism is provided so as to lead to a more balanced evaluation of environmentally and socially responsible whale-watching tourism. The assessment of the literature review leads to three main research areas that have driven the research field in whale-watching tourism: the ecological responses of cetaceans due to human disturbance, the determinants of whale-watching tourism demand, and the impact of tourism on sustainability from macro-cultural and political perspectives. The new integrative framework, which additionally considers innovation and external drivers as prominent research areas, proposes future guidelines for studying the interplay between some of the more specific research topics: social change, economic drivers, gender perspective, co-creation, social responsibility, technology, climate change and long-term cumulative effects, among other issues of concern.

This study examines the satisfaction and sustainability concerns of whale-watching tourists by analysing user-generated content (UGC) on social media. A satisfaction model was developed and estimated utilising an ordered probit analysis with UGC data from TripAdvisor over the last 13 years that includes a specific whale-watching lexicon. The model addresses most of the physical, human, environmental, experiential, and operational aspects of the activity, including consumers’ feelings and sustainability concerns. The significance of the variables in the model was proven with the available empirical data. The findings provide a comprehensive description of the underpinnings of whale watchers’ preferences and concerns. The evidence reveals compelling social trends towards higher sustainability concerns influencing satisfaction, providing valuable information for the industry and its decision-makers for understanding preferences for sustainability in whale-watching tourism.

The COVID-19 pandemic provoked a large impact on tourism because of the enforcement of harsh travel restrictions and the increased global health risks caused by international mobility. This paper utilizes a longitudinal analysis to tests the impact of COVID-19 on tourists’ health risk perceptions, and their relationships with destination image perception and visiting intentions. Tourists are surveyed at two different points of time, before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Multi-group structural equation modeling is utilized for the comparison of the relationships at the two points of time. The results show that the negative influence of health risk perceptions on destination image perception and visiting intentions are significantly larger after the COVID-19 pandemic while there are no significant differences in the impact of destination image perception on visiting intentions. Thus, not only are tourists more sensitive to health risk perceptions after COVID-19, but this higher sensitivity has larger impacts both on their perceptions of destination image and on the behavioural implication. The results have useful implications in terms of the need to dedicate more efforts for the management of health conditions of destinations after COVID-19.

The economic valuation of sustainable policies is necessary for undertaking socially optimal decisions that reduce the adverse impacts of tourism across society and the environment. This paper focuses on the economic valuation of sustainable tourism policies based on the evidence found in the literature of discrete choice experiments (DCE). The methodology involves both a systematic critical literature review and a meta-regression analysis of tourists’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable policy attributes. The findings show that tourists value policies that contribute to sustainability. However, preferences are higher for those features related to nature, the environment, and local communities and lower for those policies concerning sustainable accommodation, infrastructures, and facilities. The results show critical gaps both in terms of the available evidence of sustainable policies and the methodological pitfalls across study results. Based on this assessment, a guiding protocol is proposed for future research.

This paper studies the factors that influence tourists’ risk perceptions of various destinations with different attributes and sociocultural profiles. Factor analysis is utilised to investigate the determinants of risk perceptions, finding that they are influenced both by the type of risk (delinquency, health, accident, environment and catastrophe) and by the characteristics of the destination regarding the management of risk. Structural equations modelling is conducted to study the relationships between risk perceptions, destination image and visiting intentions across destinations. Multi-group analysis across different destinations proves that tourists’ risk perceptions have different influences on destination image and visiting intentions. The results show that there are significant differences according to the predominant religion at the destinations, i.e., Muslin and Christian. The implication is that different dimensions of perceived risks and destination socio-culture contexts have different influences on the behaviour of tourists.

Whale-watching faces the dual challenge of ensuring whale welfare and preserving marine environments in coastal areas and the open ocean while providing a satisfactory tourism experience. This study shows that importance-performance analysis (IPA), in combination with cluster analysis, provides insights into how to tailor the segments for the sustainable management of whale-watching. The segmentation analysis reveals differences in the perceptions of the activity's importance between specialist and generalist whale-watching tourists. These differences concern the factors relating to observation performance, learning about whale culture and preservation and a comfortable trip. The results suggest that operators may increase competitive advantage by focusing on those product features that are ecologically compatible, as well as investing in education and innovation. Moreover, from the point of view of coastal and ocean management and governance, the identification of consumer segments with ecological preferences raises opportunities to work towards sustainability.

This article analyses the impact of COVID-19 on travel behaviour by measuring changes in the utility of visiting destinations threatened by climate change. A choice experiment was conducted before and after the outbreak. The model was empirically investigated with 6900 individuals interviewed at origin countries as potential travellers to 11 destinations with different levels of damage. Data from the two waves of surveys show a shift in preferences toward travelling at lower prices, greater sensitivity to new infectious disease episodes and forest fires, and a downward effect on the value of other environmental features that may be more affected after the pandemic. The results support the ‘finite-pool-of-worry’ hypothesis over the alternative ‘affect-generalisation’ hypothesis. The implications of the shift in travellers' environmental sensitivities are discussed.

'Going green' is still challenging in the yachting industry partly due to the lack of consumer-centric approaches. This study assesses sailors' preferences and willingness to pay for green policies in marinas, in the context of other measures to increase health security and digital transformation. To do so, a choice experiment was designed through the lens of stakeholders and supported by the Delphi technique. The study is based on the marinas of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic crossing and involved European sailors as potential users. Data confirm that sailors' utility and intention to visit marinas increase the most when ambitious green programs are in place, thereby confirming a high environmental sensitivity among them. More specifically, solar energy use, single-use plastic eradication, and waste recycling are the programs with the greatest positive impact on sailors' willingness to pay. This indicates a potential profitability and market opportunities derived from more envi-ronmental friendly practices in marinas. The study opens a new perspective to improve incentive and funding schemes and close implementation gaps in recreational ports.

The rise in urbanization has led to an expansion of traditional urban externalities toward suburban and rural areas together with changes in the preferences of human populations for noise and air pollution. This paper analyses the preferences of the population living in rural, suburban and urban areas for noise and air pollution utilizing a revealed preference approach. Data on actual choices of residential location are analysed utilizing a Latent Class Discrete Choice model that raises two different groups of residents with different preferences for air and noise pollution. As expected and confirmed by the Multinomial and Mixed Logit models, the first group of the Latent Class model accepts higher levels of noise and air pollution in urban than in suburban and rural areas. However, the second group of residents have preferences for higher levels of noise and lower levels of air pollution in rural and suburban than in urban areas. Thus, results show some rural residents are willing to trade higher levels of noise for lower levels of air pollution, indicating adaptation of preferences to a lower level of the traditional tranquillity enjoyed in less densely populated rural areas.

The spillover effects of tourists' behavior from home to destination are relevant to understanding market preferences and to designing targeted promotion actions intended to improve tourists' wellbeing. Thermal tourism is an important segment of health tourism. The present study addresses the extent to which people who make use of thermal baths at home continue to indulge in the same activity at tourism destinations. The theoretical framework is based on self-efficacy theory and the health belief model. This work provides evidence on home-destination spillover in thermal tourism. The findings show that health self-efficacy and the perceived health benefits of thermal baths influence this choice of activity at destinations, and suggest that these variables have an effect on home-destination spillover in health tourism. The implications for the management of health tourism destinations and the promotion of tourists' health and well-being, as well as for the management of the pandemic crisis, are discussed.

The tourism sector is recognised as being highly vulnerable to climate change, and research is still considered scarce to support destinations to enhance resilience capacities. This study aims to analyse tourists' preferences for adaptation measures that can be implemented at coastal destinations to face climate risks. To this aim, 258 questionnaires were completed by tourists visiting Cyprus in the summer of 2019. Tourists were posed with hypothetical situations where several climate risks occur at the destination, and were asked to choose between alternative combinations of policies to counteract these impacts. Results indicate that the programs related to beach protection, heat waves amelioration, water supply and infectious diseases prevention are the most valued by tourists. The study provides recommendations aimed at being useful for all coastal destinations, highlighting the importance of climate-related preparedness and adaptive capacities to enhance the tourist experience value and promote economic impact.

Marine environments are magnets for millions of tourists and recreationalists worldwide. This study aims to assess the relationships between individuals' sensation and risk seeking, concerns about the environment and animal rights, and their interest in engaging in marine recreation during the visit to tourist destinations. Spe-cifically, the paper proposes a five-stage ordinal logistic model and adapts three attitudinal scales -Animal Attitude, New Environmental Paradigm and Sensation Seeking -to explain the level of interest subjects have in pursuing five marine-based activities: jet skiing, whale watching, sea kayaking, underwater observation, and snorkelling. A comprehensive analysis of 1094 responses from European frequent travellers reveals differences in the background factors that explain their dissimilar focus on one activity or another. Such differences concern preferences for the more challenging water sports, which is explained by the desire for risk and excitement, while a more focused concern for animal welfare and the environment is associated with activities that involve contact with wildlife, e.g., whale watching and snorkelling. Results deliver insights for policy decision-makers to incentivise corporate commitment to the marine environment and its biodiversity in order to meet the bio-centric attitudes of tourists and recreationists.

Studying emotions in tourism help understand and anticipate tourist behaviour, because emotions can be considered the core of the tourist experience. The measurement of emotions in tourism is a complex research task. Not all negative emotions lead to dissatisfaction and switching to negative behaviour of tourists. Concerning the emotional responses of tourists, it has been found that climate change impacts involve multiple emotional expressions. The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse the publications of the last eleven years (2012–2022) with respect to the relationships between emotional climate change communication and tourist behaviour. The review results illustrate trends and gaps, and the type of emotions and communication with greater potential to lead behavioural shifts in tourists and tourism stakeholders.

This paper specifies a hedonic price model to explain the managerial determinants of the prices of tourism and hospitality postgraduate education that is estimated utilizing a generalized linear model with data from institutions in Spain and Latin America. Results show that prices of education programs strongly depend on promotion efforts, financing facilities, recruitment requirements, convenience aspects and academic quality. Prices are positively affected by quality certification, promotion on Facebook, promotion of employment, the language requirement, and the promotion through newsletters. The results prove that there are differences between public and private institutions, with a lower price offered by the former, as well as differences in terms of the factors that affect the price. The determinants of price have a greater impact on private institutions. Results are useful for managing the promotion of educational programs and anticipating the market value effects of program managerial decisions.