social marketing and sustainable tourism—is there a match?

Social Marketing and SustainableTourismÐis there a Match?Claire Dinan1, Postgraduate Student and Adrian Sargeant2, Lecturer in Marketing1University of Exeter, Exeter, UK2Henley Management College, Henley, UK

ABSTRACT

As we approach the new millennium it isbecoming increasingly apparent that we needto re-evaluate our approach to tourismprovision, promotion and consumption.Tourismmarketing campaigns continue to beaimed at a broad range of visitor segmentsirrespective of the relative degree ofsustainability that might be exhibited in eachcase. As this paper will argue, the tools andtechniques of social marketing may thereforehave much to offer tourism organisationsseeking a more sustainable approach to theirmarket. This conclusion is based on the®ndings of a survey of 540 visitors to theSouth West of England that revealed a linkbetween key behavioural motivations andthe degree of sustainability exhibited.Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 30 March 1998; Revised 10 October 1998; Accepted14 October 1998

Keywords: social marketing; sustainabletourism; CHAID analysis.

INTRODUCTION

The concept of sustainable tourism hasbeen developing over the past threedecades, due in part to the activities of

environmental campaign organisations, suchas Green Peace, Friends of the Earth, TourismConcern, etc. Use of the phrase has increased

considerably in popularity, however, since themid-1980s and in particular since the Rio EarthSummit in 1991 and the evolution of Agenda21 (WTO and BTO, 1994).The opening editorial of the ®rst edition of

the Journal of Sustainable Tourism de®nes theconcept of sustainability in its simplest form as`a positive approach intended to reduce thetensions and friction created by the complexinteractions between the tourism industry,visitors, the environment and the communitieswhich are host to holiday makers' (Bramwelland Lane, 1993). Thus a sustainable approachwould involve a co-ordinated attempt tomanage the tourism environment in such away that the long-term integrity of a region'snatural and human resources will be pre-served. The idea of a `positive' approach is alsocentral to the concept because those whoadvocate this approach are not anti-growthper se, rather they recognise that there arelimits, to extend beyond which would result inthe ultimate destruction of the resource.Such destruction can of course happen in a

variety of different ways, but in recent yearsone of the key problems has been the narrowperspective of marketing adopted by the traveland tourism sector. Many organisations con-tinue to equate marketing with promotion andto resolutely concentrate solely on the expan-sion of overall visitor numbers. As Wheeler(1995, p. 42) puts it:

Authorities and companies have had anunbalanced view of marketing, only usingthe promotional techniques and viewingprice as supplementary to the target ofattracting additional numbers. This in turnhas caused the very visible effects on theenvironment ranging from the destruction

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCHInt. J. Tourism Res. 2, 1±14 (2000)

CCC 1099±2340/2000/010001±14 $17.50 Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

* Correspondence to: Ms Claire Dinan, Flat 2, 21 IversonRoad, London, NW6 2QT.E-mail: [email protected]

of the `loggerhead turtles' habitat on theGreek island of Zakynthos ¼ (to) ¼ foot-path erosion in the Lake and Peak DistrictNational Parks.

There is now little doubt that over zealousmarketing by tourism organisations can resultin the attraction of potentially harmful num-bers of visitors, who by their very presencealone will erode coastal paths, displace localwildlife and generate additional levels of bothnoise and vehicular pollution. Indeed althoughthese are the most obvious results of increasedvisitor numbers it is important to recognisethat there are additional impacts, many ofwhich are quite covert in nature. When it ®rstbecomes apparent, for example, that a region issuccessfully expanding its tourism base, com-mercial enterprise will be quick to recognisethe potential for inward investment. Unlessadequate controls exist this may well result inthe construction of unsightly, indistinguish-able high-rise developments designed solely toaccommodate the increased visitor numbersÐwitness the recent destruction of the Mediter-ranean coastline, for example.It is, of course, not only the hospitality

industry that will be attracted to a region whenthe whiff of successful tourism is ®rst scented.Other commercial organisations will be at-tracted by the scale of the potential market fora wide range of foodstuffs, beverages, gifts andsouvenirs. The traditional strengths of the localeconomy could be eroded and many localbusinesses may be forced into closure as itbecomes increasingly dif®cult for them tocompete with the economies of scale enjoyedby the larger tourism players (Tourism Con-cern, 1997).The impact of all these developments is

clearly to fundamentally alter the character ofthe region in which the tourism developmenthas taken place. The primary aim of a sustain-able tourism approach by contrast is to negatesome of the impacts traditionally caused byunplanned mass tourism, through the devel-opment of a carefully integrated plan invol-ving tourismmanagers, product providers andhost communities (Mathieson and Wall, 1982;Murphy, 1985; Bramwell and Lane, 1993). Inpractice this has meant that:

(1) the tourism products developed are com-

patible with the essential nature of the localsociety in which they are to be based;

(2) the project will be managed in an envir-onmentally sound manner Ð ensuring thatprecious resources are conserved and thatthe waste products produced by tourismare effectively recycled wherever possible;

(3) the economic impact is designed to bebene®cial to the local economy, through thecultivation of appropriate employment anddevelopment practices.

It is important to note, however, that theef®cacy of such arrangements is still reliant inno small measure on the behaviour patternsultimately adopted by visitors to the region.Where a region is particularly vulnerable todamage, actions by tourism organisations thathave resulted in attracting the `wrong' type oftourist can have a devastating impact, both onthe economy and on the environment. It istherefore somewhat sad to re¯ect that formany years now tourism chiefs have con-tinued to encourage `anyone and everyone' tovisit a particular region (Ryan, 1991), irrespec-tive of how these individuals might beexpected to behave when they arrive. Unlessin the future, visitors can be attracted who willagree to respect the essential nature of a regionand to adopt sustainable practices, even themost well founded attempts at preservationare likely to be futile. In recent years there hastherefore been an increasing recognition thatmarketing and, in particular, the variant `socialmarketing', could have a key role to play inthis process.In essence a social marketing approach

requires tourism organisations to give greaterconsideration to segmenting (dividing) theirmarket with a view to concentrating on thosecategories of visitor that are not only econom-ically attractive, but also likely to be suscep-tible to messages aimed at encouraging themto adopt sustainable behaviours. Social mar-keting can in addition help tourism organisa-tions to frame these messages in the mannermost likely to elicit the behavioural responserequired.Despite the potential utility of the concept,

however, comparatively little has been writtento date on its application to tourism and thenature of the possible approaches that might

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 2, 1±14 (2000)

2 C. Dinan and A. Sargeant

be taken. It is therefore the purpose of thisarticle to redress this balance by exploring thepotential for social marketing to aid industrydecision makers, particularly in the WestCountry of England, in managing the impactof the ever increasing numbers of visitorsattracted to the region. Before examining theissue directly, however, it is important to beginby explaining something of the history of theconcept and the particular tools and tech-niques that could potentially have a relevanceto the promotion of sustainable behaviours.

WHAT IS SOCIAL MARKETING?

Although the concept of marketing is certainlynot new, it was only comparatively recentlythat the concept was broadened from its tradi-tional realm of commercial for-pro®t productsand services to a variety of non-businesscontexts and settings. Kotler and Levy (1969)were the ®rst to suggest that marketing couldhave a relevance to not-for-pro®t organisa-tions, rede®ning the term as `sensitively ser-ving and satisfying human need'. This not onlyextended the range of organisations for whommarketing could have a relevance, it alsoembraced for the ®rst time within the concept,the idea that organisations should take a widerview of their role and consider not only theirown welfare and development, but also that ofthe society in which they are based. At the timetheir ideas were felt to be contentious and aconsiderable debate in the literature ensued(see e.g. Luck, 1969; Ferber, 1970; Lavidge,1970; Arndt, 1978). Nowadays, however, thedispute seems in the most part to have beenresolved and the majority of texts now agreethat marketing tools and techniques are of justas much relevance for all organisations,whether they be driven by a pro®t motive ornot (Nickels, 1974).One area where some tension remains,

however, is the question of whether marketingcan in addition be applied legitimately to therealm of social ideas. So called `social market-ing' ®rst emerged as a distinct concept in theearly 1970s, when Kotler and Zaltman (1971,p. 5) recognised that marketing tools andtechniques typically applied to products andservices could be applied equally well to themarketing of ideas. The authors de®ne social

marketing as:

the design, implementation and control ofprogrammes calculated to in¯uence theacceptability of social ideas and involvingconsiderations of product planning,pricing, communication, distribution andmarketing research.

The concept is thus of relevance to any socialsituation where the bottom line required issome form of behavioural change. Andreasen(1995, p. 7) makes this latter point explicit inhis de®nition of the term:

Social marketing is the application ofcommercial marketing technologies tothe analysis, planning, execution andevaluation of programmes designed toin¯uence the voluntary behaviour oftarget individuals in order to improvetheir personal welfare and that of theirsociety.

The technique aims to market behaviourchange openly and fairly without any prospectof ®nancial bene®t accruing to the initiatingorganisation. Indeed social marketing cam-paigns will clearly explain the bene®ts of achange in behaviour and allow individuals todraw their own conclusions in respect of themost appropriate action to take.Thus social marketing can be distinguished

by (Andreasen, 1995):

(1) a desire to bene®t individuals or society asa whole, not the marketer;

(2) an attempt to bene®t society by directlyin¯uencing behaviour;

(3) an adequate consideration of the needs ofthe target audienceÐ These needs can thenbe re¯ected in the nature of the bene®ts thatare marketed to each target group asresulting from the adoption of the speci®edchange in behaviour.

Despite some reservations in the literature,however, the concept of social marketing hasgained widespread acceptance and a numberof textbooks have now been published on thesubject (see e.g. Fine, 1981; Manoff, 1985;Kotler and Roberto, 1989). It is doubtless are¯ection of the intensity of the academicdebate that it was not until 1985 that theAmerican Marketing Association (AMA, 1985)


Social marketing 3

decided to alter its 25-year-old de®nition ofmarketing to embrace social ìdeas' for the very®rst time. In spite of the renewed philosophicaldebate that ensued the true utility of marketingto a variety of social ®elds is easily demon-strated. Social marketing has, for example,been used to great effect in tackling issues asdiverse as:

(1) general health concerns (e.g. Lefebvre andFlora, 1988; Novelli, 1990; Andreasen,1994);

(2) HIV infection and sexual responsibility(e.g. Black, 1979; Luthra, 1991; Ramah andCassidy, 1992);

(3) the dangers of smoking (e.g. Elder, 1994);(4) drug and alcohol abuse (e.g. Smith, 1992);(5) drunk driving (e.g. Braus, 1995);(6) pollution and business ethics (e.g. Abratt

and Sacks, 1988);(7) recycling and energy conservation

(McKenzie-Mohr, 1994).

It is worth noting that in each of these cases,the aim of the marketer has been to dissemi-nate new ideas or practices and to ensure thatmembers of a target segment are givensuf®cient incentive to àctivate' a new patternof behaviour. It is all too often the case thatindividuals are well aware of how they shouldbehave, but are for a variety of differentreasons reluctant to abandon their habitualisedpatterns of behaviour. Social marketing canprovide the additional impetus that might benecessary, legitimising the change in beha-viour and often countering the considerableweight of promotional effort devoted bymanufacturers of socially harmful productsto encourage their use. So called `counter-marketing' can hence have an important role toplay in a social marketing campaign (Fox andKotler, 1980).The reader also may appreciate from the

preceding list that social marketing ap-proaches are often more appropriate wherehigh-involvement decisions on the part ofconsumers are at issue. Although historicallythere has been little agreement in the literaturein respect of what constitutes ìnvolvement'(see e.g. Kapferer and Laurent, 1986; Ratch-ford, 1987), a consensus is now starting toemerge that consumers will be more involvedin a situation if they perceive it as having

immediate and personal relevance to them-selves. Moreover, if the situation is perceivedas having a high degree of risk associated withit, the level of involvement also will beenhanced. The issue of the degree of involve-ment in a particular decision is importantbecause low-involvement decisions are com-paratively easier to in¯uence through themanipulation of relatively minor environmen-tal factors, such as packaging or the creativeuse of advertising, than are high-involvementdecisions (Petty et al, 1983). An attempt toin¯uence the latter usually requires an on-going dialogue with the target audience thatprovides detailed information in respect of thebehavioural alternatives and, importantly,communicates the advantages thereof in away they will ®nd appealing. Moreover theperceived risk associated with altering a high-involvement behaviour can be lowered by theprovision of appropriate support andguidance, an attractive pricing structure (seebelow) and distribution mechanisms thatmake it easier to adopt the behaviour speci®ed.It is this integration of a whole combination ofdifferent activities that characterises the socialmarketing approach (Celsi and Olson, 1988).

HOW IS SOCIAL MARKETING DIFFERENT?

Over the years a variety of different technol-ogies have been used in an attempt to alterbehaviours. Although many of these haveshared a number of common characteristicswith social marketing, none have so compre-hensively addressed the issue of behaviourchange. Whereas a plethora of different tech-nologies have been used, e.g. health education(Glanz et al, 1990), mass communications(Atkin and Wallack, 1990), social mobilisation(Minkler, 1990), social advertising (Kotler andRoberto, 1989), societal marketing (Hirschman,1991), social communication (Fox and Kotler,1980) and public advertising (Deutsch andLiebermann, 1985) they may be convenientlycharacterised by one of four distinct para-digms of thought and action (Andreasen 1995).

(1) Education Ð where the primary goal of acampaign is to impart knowledge. Thusvisitors to a region could be made aware ofthe detrimental effects various forms of



behaviour could have on the environment.This approach assumes, however, thatthere is a direct link between educatingsomeone, thereby attempting to alter theirattitudes, and actually instigating a changein behaviour.

(2) Persuasion Ð the aim of such techniques isto sell a social idea that an individual orgroup feels is desirable. A number of earlycampaigns designed to persuade teenagersto `just say no' to drugs were based on thisapproach.

(3) Behaviour modi®cation Ð according to abehaviourist perspective, people need to begiven the opportunity of learning the tech-niques necessary for behavioural modi®ca-tion and to discover for themselves that theoutcomes will be rewarding. As Graeff et al.(1993) note, the approach therefore in-volves training individuals in the requiredbehaviours and rewarding favourable be-haviour patterns as and when they emerge.

(4) Social in¯uence - this approach recognisesthe dif®culty of attempting to in¯uenceindividual behaviour when the culture andstructures of a society simply reinforce thebehavioural patterns that are already wellestablished.

Andreasen (1995) argues that social market-ing differs from each of the foregoing cate-gories of intervention because it begins with afundamental recognition of the fact that con-sumers will act to change their behaviourwhen they believe it is in their interests to doso. The key task for social marketers is thus toresearch the needs of the recipient group,understand the key behavioural motivationsthat are important to them and thenmodify thecommunications message or even the socialidea to re¯ect these. As Leathar and Hastings(1987) note, `in a social marketing context thereis the implicit idea that suppliers absorb thevalues of the customer in some way; that isthey not only produce the goods or programsfor their intended customer, but change ormodify their attitude(idea)' in the process.Thus ideas are exchanged between the market-ing organisation and the members of the targetaudience so that a greater understanding canbe fostered between these two parties (Fox andKotler, 1980).

Social marketing also represents an inte-grated approach to the problem of behaviouralchange. This integration, although character-istic of social marketing, greatly adds to thecomplexity of designing and managing acampaign. For this reason social marketersoften utilise the now accepted framework ofthe `marketing mix' to allow them to giveadequate consideration to each dimension.

THE SOCIAL MARKETING MIX

McCarthy (1960) was responsible for introdu-cing the now famous `4Ps' to marketingvocabulary and believed that adequate atten-tion should be given to each of these areas,namely: product, price, place and promotion.These have been adapted below to demon-strate their relevance to the marketing of socialideas.

(1) Product. In the social marketing context theproduct is the idea that themarketer wishesto get across to stimulate a change inbehaviour (Kurtz and Boone, 1987). Somecampaigns do of course involve the use oftangible goods, as for example do themajority of the family planning campaignsrun in the third world (Roberto, 1975). Forthe activity to be termed social marketing,however, the use of such physical productsmust be tied to the dissemination of a socialidea. In addition, unlike traditional market-ing, which advocates the development of aproduct carefully designed to mirror cus-tomer preferences, the social marketerstrives to engineer a change that (in theiropinion) would be good for society as awhole.

(2) Price. The price may regarded as themonetary costs associated with adopting achange in behaviour. In practice the totalcost to an individual of adopting a newbehaviour often goes beyond the monetaryprice alone, as a variety of other factors aretypically involved. There are opportunitycosts associated with travelling, waitingand the pleasure/convenience of an activ-ity foregone (see e.g. Shrum et al., 1994).More usually, however, the costs of achange in behaviour will be social. Indivi-duals may suffer embarrassment and even


Social marketing 5

ridicule within their social group for beingseen to adopt a change in their behaviour.

(3) Place. Place refers to the location at whichany service component of the social mar-keting campaign will be delivered. In thecase of many birth-control programmes, forexample, access to the programme must bestraightforward and provided at a locationgeographically close to the target market.Place can also refer to the channels ofinformation that are used to reach thetarget market. Thus marketers concernedwith the marketing of sustainable tourismwill need to give adequate consideration tothe channels that will be used to dissemi-nate the message. If, for example, thedecision is taken to issue all visitors witha tourism code of conduct, the co-operationand commitment will need to be secured ofintermediaries such as travel agents, touroperators, the management of lodginghouses and hotels and those responsiblefor the tourism attractions themselves.

(4) Promotion. The ®nal `P' of McCarthy's(1960) mix refers to all the promotionaltools that could be used to stimulate aninterest in the minds of consumers andultimately a desire to implement a changein behaviour. `Promotion' hence includes aconsideration of advertising, sales promo-tion, direct marketing, public relations,personal selling and exhibitions/tradefairs.

In the case of social marketing, however,writers such as Kotler (1983) have recom-mended the adoption of an extended market-ing mix in an attempt to address a number ofthe complexities associated with marketing inthis context. We may therefore add thefollowing to the list.

(5) Partnerships. It has already been identi®edthat certain categories of behaviour are noteasy to in¯uence. Many tourism bodiesmay simply be too small to make much ofan impact on their own. They may lack thenecessary resources in terms of both stafftime and monetary backing. As a conse-quence many organisations involved insocial marketing look for potential partner-ships with other organisations with similargoals. This may involve working closely

with a wide variety of different organisa-tions in both the private and public sectors.

(6) Policy. In many cases the only method ofachieving a desired change in behaviourmay be to compel individuals to institute thechange required. In such circumstances alegislative change may be warranted andsocial marketers may thus have to considerhow best to in¯uence those who have thepower to make such a change a reality. Inthe tourism context it may, for example,become necessary to lobby local govern-ment of®cials to control vehicular access toparticular sites, or even to ban it comple-tely.

From the foregoing discussion it seems fairto conclude that social marketing could havemuch to offer those responsible for the man-agement of tourism products. As Andreasen(1995) notes, however, social marketing is onlyan appropriate form of social interventionwhen a number of criteria are satis®ed.Adapting these for use in the tourism sectorwe can conclude that social marketing is onlyappropriate where:

(1) it is possible to delineate distinct segmentsof visitors;

(2) these segments are associated with differ-ing degrees of sustainable behaviour;

(3) the underlying behavioural motivations ofthese segments (i.e. why they elect to visit aparticular region and what satisfactionsthey hope to obtain) are understood;

(4) those variables that might have the greatestpropensity to in¯uence visitor behaviourare readily identi®able.

The provision of this information wouldallow tourism organisations to develop aseparate marketing mix for each distinct seg-ment of visitors. In cases where these criteriaare not met, other social `technologies' basedon education, persuasion or social in¯uencemay well be more appropriate.In the primary study that follows, the

researchers were interested in determiningthe extent to which social marketing might bean appropriate approach for industry decisionmakers responsible for the management oftourism in theWest Country region of Englandto adopt. Each of these four criteria therefore



will be explored.

METHODS

A self completion questionnaire was devel-oped. (A copy is available from Claire Dinan.)It was designed to capture data in respect ofthe demographic, lifestyle and behaviouralcharacteristics of visitors to the region. Vari-ables in the latter category included thoserelating to the operationalisation of a sustain-able tourist, the details of which are givenbelow. The questionnaire was then adminis-tered to a sample of 540 visitors to three visitorattractions in Devon during the peak season ofJuly and August 1997. The respondents wereapproached on a randomwalk basis and askedto complete the questionnaire in the presenceof a researcher. This ensured a 100% comple-tion rate amongst those individuals selected toparticipate in the research and, moreover, thateach respondent would address each one ofthe questions raised.The three selected attractions each used

sustainable tourism management principles.Attractions were also selected for the charac-teristics of their geographical location. Attrac-tion A was situated in an urban setting,attraction B in a rural±urban setting andattraction C located in a rural setting. Equallythe attractions were located in different areasof the County; east, south and north respec-tively. Finally, each attraction was selected byvirtue of its being able to offer a distinctlydifferent tourism product with its own marketcharacteristics; Attraction A was an interpreta-tion centre and museum; Attraction B a cycleand walking route; Attraction C was a farmand wildlife attraction.The detailed demographic pro®le of respon-

dents is given in Table 1.Authors such as Krippendorf (1987),

Murphy (1985), Mathieson and Wall (1982),Tourism Concern (1997), ETB (1992), Croall(1995) and Mason and Mowforth (1995),suggest that a `sustainable tourist' could bede®ned as someone who appreciates thenotion that they are a visitor in anotherperson's culture, society, environment andeconomy and respects this unique feature oftravel. As a consequence they will:

(1) agree with and be willing to work with, acode of conduct that recommends how theyas visitors should behave while on holidayin a particular locale/region;

(2) appreciate that their activities have impactson the physical environment and tailortheir actions accordingly Ð at its mostsimple level this might involve the visitorin recognising the need to adopt respon-sible behaviours in respect of their litterand making use of recycling schemeswhere available;

(3) demonstrate an understanding of the eco-nomic implications of tourism in their hosteconomy and therefore be prepared topurchase local products, including bothfoodstuffs and crafts.

The reader will appreciate that this de®ni-

Table 1. Demographic pro®le of sample

CharacteristicPercentageof Sample

Gender:Male 42.5Female 57.5

Age Category:16±24 6.425±34 24.735±44 38.745±54 17.455±64 6.965� 6.0

Socio-economic group:A 7.1B 17.3C1 33.2C2 26.4D 10.5E 5.5

Highest level of education:GCSE/ªOº Level/CSE 41.6`A' Level 13.3HND/NVQ 20.3Degree 24.8

Number of individuals of party:1 2.52 18.63 16.04 34.25 12.96 7.87� 8.0


Social marketing 7

tion is comparatively general in nature, but theinclusion of the variable `willingness to followa code of conduct' allows this de®nition to betailored to a variety of different tourismsettings. The required forms of behaviouroften vary from one situation to another andthose that are appropriate would be clearlyspeci®ed in such a code.The nature of this de®nition suggests two

ways in which the concept of a sustainabletourist could be operationalised. One possibleapproach would be to attempt to develop apro®le of the individuals who exhibit each ofthe three sets of characteristics listed. Theresearcher could thus use a technique such asCHAID analysis (chi-squared automatic inter-action detection) with variables such as `wouldfollow a code of conduct' as the dependentvariable. Alternatively, given this complexde®nition, the concept could be operational-ised by developing an index of sustainability.Both approaches were adopted in this study,the index being constructed by combining theresponses to the binary variables:

(1) would follow a code of conduct;(2) would buy local foodstuffs;(3) would buy local crafts;(4) would recycle glass;(5) would recycle paper;(6) would recycle aluminium.

Thus each respondent to the questionnairewould be allocated a score between 0 and 6depending on the extent to which he/shewould typically engage in each of the beha-viours listed. The most sustainable category oftourist is hence de®ned as those individualsscoring six on the index (10.91% of the sample),whereas the least sustainable category oftourist would be those individuals scoringzero. The technique of CHAID analysis couldthen be used to predict membership of themost sustainable of these 6 segments andhence to identify whether highly sustainabletourists differed in any respect from the rest ofthe population.

CHAID ANALYSIS

The CHAID procedure allows the researcher todetermine whether distinct segments of (in thiscase) individuals exist within the sample. As

Magidson (1993, p. 3) explains, `CHAIDdivides a population into two or more distinctgroups based on categories of the ªbestºpredictor of a dependent variable. It then splitseach of these groups into smaller sub-groupsbased on other predictor variables'. Theresearcher is able to specify the `depth' atwhich the analysis will be conducted bycontrolling both the level of signi®cance thatwill be used for the purpose of analysis and/orthe number of subgroups that will be created.By convention the former would typically beset at 0.050 and the latter determined by themanagerial utility that results from any sub-sequent levels of analysis. It is also possible tospecify the minimum size requirements (interms of the number of cases) that areacceptable for each newly created segment.The results of the analysis are reported in theform of a tree diagram, which reports asigni®cant predictor variable at each node ofthe structure. As each group of cases is furthersubdivided the tree grows new branches in themanner illustrated in Figure 1.The CHAID analysis is similar to ordinary

chi-square analysis in that it is appropriate toapply the technique to categorical dependentand independent variables, but it differs in sofar as the pattern of responses generated can befurther segmented, by the next most signi®cantpredictor variable. Thus CHAID permits theresearcher to investigate the interaction be-tween all the independent variables underconsideration.As a ®rst step a CHAID analysis was per-

formed on each of the variables comprising theindex. For reasons of brevity only the analysisin respect of a willingness to follow a code ofconduct, considered by many as a primarycomponent of sustainability (Krippendorf,1987; Croall, 1995; Mason and Mowforth,1995), is given below. The results are reportedin Figure 1.At each node in the analysis, CHAID

provides information about the percentage ofindividuals in each segment that exhibit acertain characteristic. In this case the research-ers were interested to identify whether thoseindividuals that would follow a code of con-duct were signi®cantly different from thosethat would not in any demographic, lifestyle orbehavioural respect. The root node (at the top



of the tree) indicates that 496 respondentsresponded to the question of whether theywould, or would not follow a code and that92.34% of the sample expressed a willingnessto do so. As the predictor variables in theanalysis were largely dichotomous in nature itis to be expected that this root node wouldhave two child nodes, each of which related tohow respondents had answered the questionidenti®ed as the most signi®cant predictorvariable; in this case whether or not theywould expect to be supplied with a code ofpractice by either the management of theirholiday accommodation or a tour operator. Ofthe 222 individuals who would not expect toreceive a copy of a visitor code in this way,only 86.49% would follow a code, comparedwith 97.08% of the 274 individuals who wouldexpect that a code would be distributed in thisway. Clearly managing the expectations ofreceipt of a code of practice will be a signi®cantissue for tourism marketers to address.

At the next stage of the analysis CHAIDidenti®ed that a second level predictor whichis whether the destination is perceived asoffering sustainable tourism venues Ð wascited as being amongst the key reasons for avisit. Of the 222 individuals who would notexpect to receive a code of conduct 152 did notattend the West Country for this reason. Ofthese 152, only 81.58% would follow a code ofconduct, a signi®cantly smaller ®gure than the92.34% given for the sample as a whole.The segment with the highest incidence of

individuals who would not follow a code is,however, readily identi®able if a third pre-dictor variable is utilised. As Figure 1 clearlyshows, only 78.46% of individuals who:

(1) did not expect to receive a copy of a code ofconduct;

(2) did not visit the West Country because itoffers sustainable tourism options;

(3) did not encounter litter during their stay.

Figure 1. The CHAID analysis of respondent's willing to follow a code of conduct


Social marketing 9

would follow a code of visitor conduct. Thishas clear marketing implications because overone-®fth of the individuals who shared thesecharacteristics would not follow a code. Point(3) is of particular interest because it wouldappear that individuals who encounter litterduring their stay are signi®cantly more likelyto be mindful of their own behaviour, asevidenced by their willingness to follow acode. Those visitors who encounter no littereither on the beach or during a visit to thecountryside will be signi®cantly less likely tofollow a code. Thus it would appear that onlywhen the evidence of non-sustainable beha-viour is clearly visible, will many individuals®nally accept the necessity to modify their ownbehaviours.The analysis also revealed an additional

segment worthy of note. Following a differentbranch of the tree diagram it seems clear thatonly 80% of those individuals who:

(1) did not expect to receive a copy of a code ofconduct;

(2) did visit the West Country because itoffered sustainable tourism options;

(3) but who do not recycle at home.

will follow a code of conduct. A ®fth of thissegment are also unwilling to follow a code.The members of this segment are particularlyinteresting because it may be inferred that theywould tend to regard conservation as someoneelse' responsibility. They exhibit no sustain-able behaviour patterns themselves, but arevery willing to enjoy the fruits of other peopleadhering to a sustainable philosophy in theirchoice of tourism destination. It should be,however, noted that additional research wouldbe necessary to replicate this ®nding as thenumber of observations contained in this ®nalstage of the analysis is relatively small.The results of the analysis using the index of

Figure 2. The CHAID analysis of the `highly sustainable' segment



sustainability referred to earlier, but takingmembership of the `highly sustainable' seg-ment as the dependent variable, is depicted inFigure 2.In this case the root node (at the top of the

tree) indicates that of the 541 respondents(10.91%) could be regarded as highly sustain-able. The most signi®cant predictor variablewas identi®ed as `scenery'. Of the 184 indivi-duals who did not associate the West Countrywith beautiful scenery, only 4.35% could beclassi®ed as highly sustainable. This compareswith 14.29% of the group of individuals thatdid associate the West Country with beautifulscenery.At the next stage of the analysis CHAID has

identi®ed that two other variables offer ex-planatory power in predicting membership ofthe highly sustainable segment. Firstly, ofthose 184 individuals who did not associatethe West Country with beautiful scenery, 51visitors had travelled to the region to visitthose attractions that could be regarded as`historic' in nature. Some 11.76% of this groupcould be classi®ed as highly sustainablecompared with only 1.5% of those individualswho appeared concerned with neither beauti-ful scenery nor historic attractions.Perhaps of greatest managerial signi®cance,

however, is the second branch of the treediagram. In this case CHAID has identi®ed thevariable `sunshine' as the second level pre-dictor of membership of the highly sustainablegroup. In particular 17.18% of the 291 indivi-duals who

(1) associate the West Country with beautifulscenery;

(2) did not travel to the West Country primar-ily to enjoy the sunshine

can be regarded as highly sustainable. Thiscompares with only 10.91% for the sample as awhole. There is therefore considerable evi-dence for a link between the degree ofsustainability likely to be exhibited by a visitorand

(1) their perceptions of the West Country;(2) their primary reasons for attendance.

Those individuals who travel to the WestCountry primarily to enjoy the better climateare likely to be signi®cantly less likely to

behave sustainably than those individualswho travel to the region for other (possiblycultural) reasons.

IMPLICATIONS

It seems clear from the foregoing that the toolsand techniques of social marketing may havemuch to offer those responsible for themanagement of tourism products. The CHAIDanalysis has identi®ed that discrete visitorsegments do exist and that individuals exhibit-ing varying levels of sustainable behaviour doappear to have different motives for their visit,in this case, to the West Country region ofEngland. Insight has also been gained into anumber of the variables that might offer utilityin in¯uencing visitor behaviour. The readerwill recall that all these ingredients areregarded as essential by Andreasen (1995) forthe development of a successful social market-ing campaign.Indeed two distinct, although not mutually

exclusive, strategies are suggested by theresults. In the ®rst of these, the industrydecision makers in the West Country couldmake a deliberate effort to attract a higherproportion of sustainable visitors to the region.There is clear potential to segment the tradi-tional market and to focus in particular on thedevelopment of those individuals who wouldbe attracted to the region by virtue of thenatural beauty of the countryside, or thehistorical nature of many of the attractions.Such visitors would be considerably morelikely to behave sustainably than those whomight be attracted to the region for otherpurposes, such as to enjoy the weather or tovisit a beach. Industry marketers could thusemphasise themes such as the rich history andculture of the region and the natural beauty ofits countryside in its forthcoming publicitymaterial. These promotional themes could takeprecedence over the images of hot sunnybeaches that have tended to form the focus ofsuch material in the past. It seems clear fromthe results of this study that these lattermessages will appeal largely to categories oftourist that are less sustainable.Having elected to focus on those individuals

who have expressed a willingness to behavesustainably, the Regional Tourist Board might


Social marketing 11

then concentrate on facilitating appropriatebehaviours, through developing a code ofconduct, providing recycling facilities, en-couraging attractions to adopt a more sustain-able stance, etc. Visitors in the target categorywould require little convincing of the need forchange, but they may need advice on appro-priate behaviours and appropriate facilitationdevices.The second strategy suggested by this study

would be to allocate resources to targeting theleast sustainable of the two visitor segmentswith a second and quite distinct social market-ing mix. Any such campaign would need toconcentrate on the desirability of adoptingspeci®c changes in behaviour, fostering indi-vidual relevance and a willingness to follow avisitor code of conduct. The mere presence of acode may help to persuade some individualsto behave sustainably. The foregoing analysis,however, has suggested a number of impor-tant variables that would appear to be key inencouraging individuals to commit thereto.The raising of public awareness about theexistence of a code and tourism sites that are,in particular, managed in a sustainablefashion, should encourage a greater propor-tion of visitors to behave sustainably. It is alsointeresting to note that individuals who havebeen exposed to the impact of unsustainablebehaviour become much more favourablydisposed to behaving sustainably themselvesin future. Given that Andreasen (1995) notesthat a social marketing approach can beeffectual only where individuals perceive abene®t to themselves from adopting a changein their behaviour, a number of possiblecampaign themes are suggested. Campaignmessages, for example, exposing individualsto images of negative environmental impacts,could well help stimulate preventative beha-viours.Of course, it would be unlikely that indivi-

dual tourism attractions would have thenecessary resources to run any such campaignthemselves. Moreover, it would tantamount tocommercial suicide to suggest an associationwith any form of negative imagery with aspeci®c site or location. The appropriate levelfor intervention has thus to be regional, or evennational, involving a collaboration with othersimilarly minded organisations. This too is

consistent with the social marketing approachsuggested by the literature (see Kotler, 1983).The lack of any association between a will-ingness to adopt sustainable behaviours andvisitor demographics makes this latter ap-proach all the more relevant. In the absenceof such de®ning characteristics the targeting ofparticularly intransigent individuals becomesproblematic and potentially very expensive.Individual tourism bodies are therefore un-likely to possess the necessary resources.Indeed it is particularly interesting to note

the absence of demographic variables in thepreceding analysis. Studies into the character-istics of the ecotourism market, such as thoseby Ballantine and Eagles (1994) and Wight(1996) have established such a link, but we areunable to con®rm their ®ndings in relation totourists exhibiting sustainable behaviours. Theprimary predictor variables of sustainablebehaviour identi®ed in this study appearrelated to an individual's motives for visitinga particular region, their awareness of sustain-able tourism issues and the degree of exposurethey might have had to unsustainable beha-viour themselves. The results are thereforeencouraging for industry decision makers inthe West Country region, in so far as theysuggest that the `market' for sustainable tour-ism could be broader than has been believedpreviously. An approach to this market basedon social marketingwould likely be effective indeveloping it to its full potential, while at thesame time minimising the economic, socialand physical impacts of enhanced visitornumbers on the host region. In short, the toolsand techniques of social marketing wouldseem well suited to the promulgation of boththe notion of sustainability and the conserva-tion of our tourism destinations.

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social marketing and sustainable tourism—is there a match?

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