Even though tourists increasingly value sustainable practices in tourism businesses and destinations, price is still one of the main determinant factors in their decisions. Therefore, for destination managers it is essential to understand tourists’ willingness to pay an additional price to visit a place where sustainable practices are adopted. In this context, and building on social psychology theories, the present study proposes and tests a causal model encompassing tourists’ Willingness To Pay (WTP) for sustainability in tourist destinations as well as their own sustainability attitudes, namely: Environmental Beliefs, Ecotour Attitudes, and Sustainable Consumption Behaviour. To this end, data were collected through a questionnaire survey of Portuguese tourists (n = 567). The hypothesised relationships between the latent variables were then tested using Structural Equations Modelling (SEM) procedures. The results show that Environmental Beliefs significantly affected both Ecotour Attitudes and Sustainable Consumption Behaviour, and that the latter two significantly affected WTP. However, no significant effect of Environmental Beliefs on WTP was found. These findings provide useful insights for destination managers aiming to more effectively cater to sustainability-oriented tourists. Future research should attempt to assess the role of other determinants of WTP.

Considering the increase in the number of tourists and tourist flows in the city of Porto, especially in the parishes that make up the UNESCO World Heritage area and its surrounding protected areas, it is extremely important to analyse the perception that residents and professionals have about the dynamics that tourists bring to the city and the impacts of tourism in economic, socio-cultural and environmental terms. Thus, this study aims to assess the perception that residents of the city of Porto have on the impacts of tourist activity in the Historic Centre of Porto (CHP) and whether there is a relationship between the place of residence, the place of professional activity or study and the perception of the impacts of tourism in the Economic, Socio-cultural and Environmental aspects. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was applied to a sample of 322 professionals and residents in the city of Porto. The results suggest that the respondents consider that tourism in Porto is growing harmoniously with the city and tourism activity has a direct influence on the overall improvement of the Centre of Porto. The aspects that is most relevant to the positive perception of tourism in the city is the socio-cultural component that shows that tourism development process in Porto is in an expansion phase.

As recent studies show, tourists increasingly favour hotels and other tourism businesses that adopt more sustainable practices. This trend has arguably been intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, due to the restrictions regarding crowded places and closed spaces, a lot of tourists have (re)discovered nature. In this context, the present study aims to analyse tourists’ evaluation of sustainability criteria and willingness to pay for items when choosing a destination during the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, previously validated scales for sustainability criteria and willingness to pay (for a sustainable destination) were tested, through a confirmatory approach, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, data was collected through a survey questionnaire (n=567) with Portuguese tourists and subjected to a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The findings show that the factors hold their dimensionality, convergent validity, and reliability in the context of Portuguese tourists travelling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, a newly proposed item, related to the importance given to the inclusion of local producers in the tourism industry’s supply chain, was validated. The findings also show that, especially when it comes to willingness to pay, factors with a direct effect on tourists’ experience are significantly more valued. Additionally, the results point to a slightly different outlook on sustainability criteria by Portuguese tourists, which is likely related to the context of the pandemic. Finally, the findings provide useful insights for destination managers aiming to attract tourists with a more sustainable behaviour.