Promoting public transport use in tourism

Research output: Contribution to book/conference proceedings/anthology/reportChapter in book/anthology/reportContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Diem-Trinh Le-Klähn - , Technical University of Munich (Author)
  • C. Michael Hall - (Author)
  • Regine Gerike - , University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Author)

Abstract

It has long been recognised in the academic literature that developing tourism in a sustainable manner is vital for all destinations. Sustainable development in general and sustainable tourism development in particular have received growing attention in government and business planning and policies. Some companies also started to be more responsible with the environment. There have been growing numbers of supporting services from other sectors including green hotels, bio-products and low emissions rental cars. It is of course best to combine efforts from all product suppliers and consumers to achieve sustainability in tourism. However, one very important area in sustainable tourism development is transport services for tourists. Tourism contributes at least 4.4 per cent of global CO2 emissions and a large part of it (75 per cent) comes from transport, although this figure may be considerably larger if radiative forcing is also considered (Dubois et al., 2011; Hall et al., 2013; Scott et al., 2012a). Consequently, reducing transport emissions is a priority task in mitigating the emissions from tourism (Gössling et al., 2013). This has become even more important due to the continuing problems of growing population, increasing traffic congestion and pollution, and the impacts of climate change. Of the several initiatives to reduce emissions in tourism transport, shifting to more eco-friendly transport modes (e.g. public transport) is one promising direction (Dickinson and Dickinson, 2006; Scott et al., 2012b). This chapter discusses the importance of public transport in sustainable tourism development. It explains why public transport plays a key role at an urban tourism destination. Using a case study of visitor use of public transport in Munich, it explains how visitors use public transport in the city. The chapter identifies the most important attributes of public transport services for visitors, which reflect significant differences from the resident users and are therefore worthy of attention with respect to public transport management and marketing. Marketing strategies targeting the visitor groups are then presented, which shows how public transport could be promoted to visitors at an urban destination.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationUnderstanding and Governing Sustainable Tourism Mobility
EditorsScott A. Cohen, James E.S. Higham, Gossling Stefan, Paul Peeters
PublisherTaylor and Francis Group
Pages208-222
Number of pages15
ISBN (electronic)9781135038311
ISBN (print)9780415839372
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2014
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes