Visitors' motivations to engage in glacier tourism in the European Alps: comparison of six sites in France, Switzerland, and Austria

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_BF5E9CF62F42
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Visitors' motivations to engage in glacier tourism in the European Alps: comparison of six sites in France, Switzerland, and Austria
Journal
Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Author(s)
Salim Emmanuel, Mayer Marius, Sacher Philipp, Ravanel Ludovic
ISSN
0966-9582
1747-7646
Publication state
Published
Issued date
04/03/2022
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Pages
1-21
Language
english
Abstract
Glacier tourism is an important form of travel in the Alps that is currently threatened by climate change. Previous studies have shown that glaciers are retreating worldwide, and media coverage has led to the development of last-chance tourism. However, few studies have focused on the European Alps, and glacier site visitors have not been segmented based on their motivations yet, hindering the understanding of different profiles. Therefore, using a latent class analysis, this study reveals that the 1330 survey respondents from six glacier tourism sites (Montenvers, Nid d’Aigle, Glacier Blanc, Rhône Glacier, Aletsch Glacier, and Franz–Josefs–Höhe/Pasterze) in three alpine countries (France, Switzerland, and Austria) can be segmented into four classes based on their motivations and other factors. Among them, the “last chance” and “climate visitor” classes were identified, representing between 50% and 57% of the respondents from the investigated sites. The results also indicate that visitors’ motivations are stable across sites and that glaciers are the object of last-chance tourism. This research contributes to the fields of glacier tourism and last-chance tourism by proposing a segmentation of visitors and allowing the generalisation of the presence of last-chance tourism for glacier tourism sites in the Alps.
Keywords
Climate change, last-chance tourism, glacier tourism, motivation, latent class analysis, Alps
Web of science
Create date
08/03/2022 21:49
Last modification date
16/01/2023 16:36
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