Understanding Customer Perception on Sustainable Tourism and Related Practices Using Cluster Analysis: A Study in Indian Context

Abstract

‘Sustainable tourism’ has emerged as an increasingly acceptable phenomenon and is widely recognized as an important factor in making a positive impact on protecting the environment as well as contributing to the economy. Several agencies and organizations worldwide promote sustainable tourism but the adoption and practice amongst the travellers have been seldom explored in the Indian context. This article attempts to identify the class of ‘sustainable tourists’ by identifying their demographic characteristics through the application of K-means cluster analysis. The results depicted that females are likely to be more sustainable than their male counterparts. Apart from that, young, more educated along with those in full-time employment are more likely to exhibit characteristics of a ‘sustainable tourist’. Further, this study is also successful in identifying specific practices in which a ‘sustainable tourist’ is likely to engage themselves. This article provides important implications for a range of stakeholders including tour and travel agencies, hoteliers as well as tourist guides who can reformulate their marketing strategies to include ‘sustainable tourists’ in their efforts to expand their customer base. It will also give useful insights to the administration and other authorities of the tourist destinations to minimize the damage and promote the culture of sustainable tourism.

The Contribution of Green Marketing in the Development of a Sustainable Destination through Advanced Clustering Methods

“…The topic is unique in its approach, and the results show the usefulness of the clustering method in the field of green tourism and the contribution of green marketing in the development of a sustainable destination through the seven segments characterized by specific attributes. This has also been demonstrated in other studies, such as [104], which states that clustering methods can be used to identify sustainable tourist segments, and [97] mentions that clustering methods can be useful in the field of green tourism. The benefits of this research are that it provides information to economic agents about the preferences of tourists who practice green tourism and pursue sustainable activities, as well as in offering concrete solutions to make tourism packages profitable for them.…”

“…The clustering methods used in this empirical research show that among the respondents, there are segments that practice green tourism and consider the means of transportation used, accommodations, tourist destinations, and recycling policies. This conclusion was also reached by [104], who states that the class of 'sustainable tourists' can be identified by revealing their demographic characteristics through the application of clustering methods.…”

A network perspective of cognitive and geographical proximity of sustainable tourism organizations: evidence from Italy

“…Recent research on tourism management has paid attention to the geography of collaborative networks for pursuing mutual benefits and tapping into complementary knowledge assets (Jain and Sharma, 2021; Stylidis, 2018). Sustainability goals may also be reached through interconnections between tourism businesses, allowing companies to codesign tourism services and cooperate in the implementation of sustainable tourism solutions (Elche et al , 2018).…”