Tourists’ behavior: environmental sustainability as a determinant attribute on the buying process

The main objective of this research is to assess the relevance sustainability has on tourists ‘behaviour. Other objectives include to identify the sustainability practices that are relevant to tourists when making purchasing decisions; to understand the influence sustainability has on their future behaviour intentions; to assess differences between day-to-day decisions and vacations, and to evaluate differences of behaviour and perceptions associated to sociodemographic characteristics. A descriptive design was used through an online questionnaire aimed to a non-probabilistic convenience sample of 236 tourists. The main conclusion is that there is a gap between tourists’ attitudes and behaviour concerning sustainability relevance and practices. Other conclusions are environmental sustainability is perceived as very important for most of consumers but its influence on the consumer decision process for destinations and accommodation is very low; current behaviour has more influence than future intentions or monetary incentives on the importance tourists assign to environmental sustainability.