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| SELECTIVE MARKETING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM BASED ON THE ANALYSIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOR——A Case Study of Jiuzhaigou |
| LIU Ru-fei |
| College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China |
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Abstract Based on relevant theories and empirical studies both at home and abroad, this paper, providing a case study of Jiuzhaigou, discusses the differences of tourists' environmental behavior, and its inspiration to the practice of selective marketing. The results indicate that tourist segments based on environmentally friendly behavior at the destination represent distinct groups with respect to some socio-demographic, psychographic and behavioral personal characteristics. These explanatory variables contribute substantially to explaining pro-environmental behaviors. Pro-environmental attitudes and moral obligation emerges as main psychometric variables. Gender emerges as the central socio-demographic personal characteristic, which together with the study of pro-environmental behaviors proves female tourist segments the most environmental friendly group. The existing state of the environment also plays an important role. Furthermore, different levels of environmentally friendly tourists show different travel motivation and preferences, which provide sound basis for selective marketing of sustainable tourism. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that segments which are defined by having different levels of pro-environmental behavior at the tourist destination are distinct segments of the population which differ in other personal characteristics as well. They can consequently be used to implement selective marketing approaches aiming at attracting Small Environmental Footprint Tourists. This study consequently contributes to the knowledge in the area of sustainable tourism in two aspects: (1) investigating the tourists' characteristics significantly related to pro-environmental behavior; (2) investigating the managerially useful information of different segments. Also, the paper explores the application of NEP scale in China's tourism research.
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Received: 17 December 2009
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2010, Vol. 25 
