PhD project in Generational differences in sustainable travel behaviour

Overview

A review of the literature suggests even though all generational cohorts exhibit substantially different tourist behaviours, they all want a sustainable tourism experience and pay attention to the sustainability credentials of destinations and service providers. However, there is a nascent but growing body of literature which suggests a high degree of cognitive dissonance across all generations in every day sustainable practices at home and whilst on holidays. More importantly, destination managers and marketers are yet to fully integrate the environmental, social and economic measures of sustainability across all stages of the tourism and hospitality product life cycles to attract specific generational markets.

This project seeks new interdisciplinary research to further our understanding of generational differences in sustainable tourism behaviour and how marketers can use this information to design sustainable experiences for age-based cohorts. Research may be problem-focused, creatively innovative and exploratory, and should bring together relevant disciplines in social sciences, where appropriate, for maximum impact.

The specific objectives are:

· Examine the theoretical and empirical links between home-based and tourism-related sustainability practices across generations.

· Explore the extent to which specific sustainability behaviours in the home-and tourism-environments will result in achieving SDGs 12 and 13 across generations.

· Investigate generational differences in sustainability behaviours in the home-and tourism-environments according to demographic, social economic status (SES) and living environment.

This project will make a significant contribution to: Developing dissonance reduction strategies that can inform the way in which destination managers, marketers and policy makers develop information-based persuasive campaigns to disrupt the unsustainable habits of people across generations in order to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) 12 and 13.

The PhD candidate will aim to: Explore the relationships between commitments towards SDG 12 and 13 by age-based cohorts in and around the home and their behaviours when on holidays.

This PhD project will aim to: Understand through interdisciplinary research what individuals across age-based cohorts are willing to do at home and what was acceptable and desirable to undertake on vacation.

Suggested reading:

· Kollmuss, A., & Agyeman, J. (2002). Mind the gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? Environmental Education Research, 8 (3), 239–260.

· Juvan, E., & Dolnicar, S. (2014). The attitude–behaviour gap in sustainable tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 48, 76-95.

· Barr, S., Shaw, G., Coles, T., & Prillwitz, J. (2010). ‘A holiday is a holiday’: Practicing sustainability, home and away. Journal of Transport Geography, 18(3), 474-481.