A Conceptual Representation of the Semantic Fields of Responsible Tourism: Implications for Marketing
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Purpose -Sustainable tourism activities have generated a large amount of research to understand responsible behavior.Scholars have provided multiple definitions, although the meaning of different terms for tourists has rarely been investigated.The objective of this research study is to reveal what the tourist understands by responsible tourism, comparing it with similar concepts and identifying semantic fields that allow a differentiation on the part of the latter.Design/Methodology/Approach -Focus groups consisting of socio-demographically varied individuals have been developed to probe for similarities and differences between the groups.The results show that the associated meanings are not equivalent, and that the meanings can be categorized along an axis represented by the individual versus the institutional dimension, and another with a social dimension versus the destination as "environment".Findings and implications -The concepts of responsible, sustainable, ecological, and environmental tourism can be defined comparatively.The perceived differences offer clues about the concept and about who should be Sažetak Svrha -Aktivnosti održivoga turizma dovele su do velikog broja istraživanja kako bi se razumjelo odgovorno ponašanje.Znanstvenici su dali više definicija iako je značenje različitih pojmova za turiste rijetko istraživano.Cilj istraživanja jest otkriti što turist podrazumijeva pod odgovornim turizmom uspoređujući ga sa sličnim konceptima i identificirajući semantička polja koja dopuštaju njegovo razlikovanje.Metodološki pristup -Kako bi se otkrilo postoje li sličnosti i razlike između skupina korištene su fokus grupe s pojedincima koji pripadaju različitim sociodemografskim skupinama.Rezultati pokazuju da pridružena značenja nisu ekvivalentna i da se mogu kategorizirati duž osi na kojoj se nalaze dimenzija pojedinac nasuprot institucionalna dimenzija, te drugoj s društvenom dimenzijom nasuprot dimenziji destinacija kao "okoliš".Rezultati i implikacije -Koncepti odgovornog, održivog, ekološkog i okolišnog turizma mogu se usporedno definirati.Percipirane razlike nude naznake o konceptu i o tome tko bi trebao biti odgovoran za razvoj održivih aktivnosti.Konačno, analiza diskursa omogućuje dobivanje smjernica o marketinškim akcijama usmjerenim na Vol.36, No. 2, 2024, pp.133-152 responsible for developing sustainable actions.Finally, the analysis of the discourses allows obtaining guidelines on marketing actions aimed at promoting sustainable behaviors and communicating the value of sustainability by companies and organizations.Limitations -The main limitation of this research study is that the sample that integrates the discussion groups may not be large enough to be representative, with the intervention time of all attendees possibly not being balanced, as well as the bias of the moderator directing the groups.Originality -The study provides information on what tourists understand by responsible tourism and other related meanings, based on a demographically balanced sample of the Spanish population.
Source: Market-Tržište
Institution: University of Castilla-La Mancha
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4406903885