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on Tourism Economics |
| By: | Pennington-Gray, Lori; Kokorović Jukan, Meldina; Herić, Erna |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the potential of regenerative tourism as a sustainable development pathway for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Renowned for its rich cultural heritage, diverse natural landscapes, and complex post-conflict socio-economic context, BiH has seen tourism emerge as a vital economic sector, contributing approximately 10-11% of GDP and 12% of total employment prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent growth in tourist arrivals and overnight stays underscores the sector's importance for national development. Regenerative tourism represents a paradigm shift beyond conventional and sustainable models, emphasizing ecosystem restoration, community empowerment, and socio-economic resilience while enhancing BiH's tourism products and experiences. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining a desk review and qualitative content analysis of key tourism strategies from both BiH entities with a survey of 46 stakeholders, including tourism professionals, hospitality providers, local authorities, NGOs, and academics. The conceptual framework, grounded in regenerative tourism and development literature, centers on five design dimensions: place-based orientation, systems thinking, ethical stewardship and regenerative action, collaborative governance, and transformative learning. Strategic documents were evaluated against these dimensions, and survey data were analyzed descriptively to assess stakeholders' knowledge, attitudes, and readiness for regenerative tourism. Findings indicate that while entity-level tourism strategies incorporate sustainability, inclusiveness, and competitiveness-focusing on product development, destination marketing, and human resource capacity-they lack explicit regenerative goals such as ecosystem restoration, net-positive impact, and transformative learning. Stakeholders exhibit moderate conceptual awareness but limited training, experience, and collaboration mechanisms to implement regenerative practices. The study contributes to academic and policy debates by situating regenerative tourism within BiH's post-conflict development context, highlighting key opportunities and challenges, and providing strategic recommendations for policymakers and practitioners. Ultimately, regenerative tourism emerges as a transformative pathway for BiH to enhance environmental restoration, social cohesion, and economic resilience while positioning itself as a competitive and responsible destination in the global market. |
| Keywords: | regenerative tourism, sustainability, governance, tourism policy, Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| JEL: | Z30 Z32 Z38 Q56 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esconf:343403 |
| By: | Fasha, Andina; Kang, Cheryn; Lady Lady; Setiawan, Budi |
| Abstract: | Purpose: The escalation of ecotourism as sustainability-oriented travel highlights the inconsistency of tourists' responsible actions during visits, which is also known as the attitude-behavior gap, whereas environmental concern does not necessarily translate into action, as discussed in sustainable tourism literature. Research Methodology: A quantitative approach was employed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling, collected through questionnaire surveys from 478 tourists who had previously visited Ecotourism destinations in Batam City, Indonesia, using SmartPLS 4. Results: The findings show how direct environmental experiences at the destination were more effective in encouraging responsible tourist behavior than pre-visit digital exposure, which presumes that it is more likely to develop revisit intentions as long-term destination loyalty. Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of environmental behavior in fostering revisit intention within ecotourism destinations and suggests that direct interpretive experiences at the destination may play a more influential role in shaping tourists’ behavior than digital promotional exposure alone. Limitations: This study was limited to one ecotourism site in Batam City, with cross-sectional self-reported data, which may have limited generalizability. Contributions: This study extends sustainable tourism literature by integrating digital green marketing, environmental belief, and environmental interpretation into a unified behavioral framework explaining revisit intention through environmental behavior and offer practical insights for ecotourism managers to strengthen sustainable behavior and long-term destination loyalty through effective communication and interpretation strategies. |
| Date: | 2026–07–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:w8u94_v1 |
| By: | Lewin, Peter; , Danyelle; Zinn, Anna Kristina (University of Queensland); MacInnes, Sarah; Dolnicar, Sara (The University of Queensland) |
| Abstract: | Hotel sustainability research shows that pro-environmental behaviour‑change interventions are often effective in field experiments, but widespread adoption by hotels remains limited. One possible explanation is that hotels lack external recognition that would make adopting these measures visible to guests and rewarding to managers. This study investigates whether university-affiliated sustainability badges could serve as a recognition mechanism, testing their effectiveness across two studies drawing on Signalling Theory and Social Identity Theory. In an online experiment (N=975), prospective hotel guests viewed simulated hotel booking pages featuring one of the four badge options, or no badge, across budget, mid-range, and luxury hotel pricing segments. All badge variations increased perceived hotel sustainability and guests’ sense of belonging to a community of environmentally conscious travellers (group identification). Badges did not trigger negative emotions, but the university affiliated logo did not perform better than a generic environmental logo on almost all measures, suggesting these effects are based on the presence of any badge, rather than the university partnership specifically. Semi-structured interviews with ten hotel managers found conditional receptivity to university-affiliated badges, primarily through a sense of shared values and community orientation with the partnering institution (collective values) rather than the badge’s function as a credibility signal. These findings suggest that collective values and shared identities, rather than signalling, may be the more promising mechanism for engaging hotels and guests around sustainability initiatives, and offer an encouraging direction for potential university-hotel partnerships that may translate into the future implementation of pro-environmental behaviour change interventions. |
| Date: | 2026–09–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:2pv9b_v2 |