Gamification as An Approach to Promote Tourist Recycling Behavior

Abstract

Recycling behavior is an issue that affects the sustainability of many seasonal destinations. The EU promotes projects such as the UrbanWaste that try to study how to avoid the deplorable consequences on cities of this situation. This project has implemented a gamified application, named WasteApp in several European cities, in order to promote the recycling behavior of tourists. This study aimed to verify if the application can be a successful tool to foster recycling and to improve tourism destination reputation. The results show that tourist satisfaction will be influenced directly by the perceived usefulness of the application, and perceived usefulness by the perceived ease of use, but the expectations of the prizes can be counterproductive if they are not perceived as useful for the promoted behavior. Likewise, the satisfaction of the user will influence the recycling behavior, which at the same time improves the reputation of the destination. Besides, the initiative will be visible through word of mouth that is generated from the perceived usefulness, the user’s satisfaction, and the recycling behavior itself. That is, according to this study a gamified application can contribute to the recycling behavior of tourists and improve the image of the destination that adopts it.

Gamification to prevent climate change: a review of games and apps for sustainability

“…In an intervention designed to increase recycling behavior, tourists were encouraged to use an app called "WasteApp" to locate recycling bins in several cities [48]. "WasteApp" was effective at increasing recycling for users who perceived the app as useful.…”

The Effect of Gamification on Psychological and Behavioral Outcomes: Implications for Cruise Tourism Destinations

“…Although not directly related to the effect of gamification, Yoo et al's study [41] investigated which factors affect the adoption of gamified applications within the context of tourism, and found that the hedonic characteristics of gamified apps are strong. By adopting TAMs (Technology Acceptance Models), Aguiar-Castillo et al [42] verified the perceived usefulness and ease of use on tourist satisfaction levels and recycling behavior. Within the context of tourism, few studies have paid attention to empirical evidence of the effect of gamification on behavioral models, Thus, this study tries to develop a theoretical model of gamification to explore its impact on psychological and behavioral outcomes in a comprehensive process, based on a field experiment employing a newly-developed gamified app tailored for the Gyeongbok palace, a cultural heritage site.…”

Gamification of Sustainable Consumption: a systematic literature review

“…Within the articles published between 2018-2019 it was possible to identify various that relate to the same solution, like "MUV" [59,61] and GoEco! [51,57] for transportation choices, and WasteApp [69,74] for tourist behavior, providing a comprehensive picture of the rationale behind the apps, their features, indicators, and early results of the testing and monitoring sessions.…”