Lectures are a central element of traditional university learning, but Australian lecturers increasingly face very low levels of lecture attendance. A significant amount of research exists that investigates the drivers of lecture attendance. However, those studies typically study single factors in an isolated manner, thus overestimating the importance of individual factors. This study contributes to the understanding of lecture attendance (and nonattendance) by including a range of factors that potentially affect lecture attendance simultaneously, thus accounting for possible interactions between factors and identifying the key drivers of lecture attendance. The study uses a survey among all students of an Australian university to compute a regression model with the probability of lecture attendance as the dependent variable. Results indicate that only four of the factors previously investigated are significant for marketing students (i.e., the difficulty of the subject, the quality of the lecture as perceived by the student, the quality of the student as indicated by his or her average mark, and the format of the lecture), which leaves little opportunity for Australian universities to improve attendance with simple measures. Instead, the data suggest that universities need to improve the quality of lectures to achieve better attendance levels. Lectures are a central element of traditional university learning, but Australian lecturers increasingly face very low levels of lecture attendance (Rodgers, 2001). A significant amount of research exists that investigates the drivers of lecture attendance. However, those studies typically study single factors in an isolated manner, thus overestimating the importance of individual factors. The present study contributes to our understanding of lecture attendance (and non-attendance) by including a range of factors that potentially affect lecture attendance simultaneously, thus accounting for possible interactions between factors and identifying the key drivers of lecture attendance. We used a survey among all students of an Australian university to compute a regression model with the probability of lecture attendance as the dependent variable.Our results indicate that only four of the factors previously investigated are significant for marketing students (that is, the difficulty of the subject, the quality of the lecture as perceived by the student, the quality of the student as indicated by their average mark, and the format of the lecture), which leaves little opportunity for Australian universities to improve attendance with simple measures. Instead, the data suggests that universities need to improve the quality of lectures to achieve better attendance levels. 2

Environmental sustainability in tourism has received significant attention among destination managers and researchers alike. Yet the range of measures proposed to reduce the environmental footprint of tourists at a destination remains limited to measures taken at the destination, as opposed to marketing measures which aim to attract truly green tourists. The potential of using green tourist as a market segment, however, has not been established to date. We review published profiles of green tourists and assess the managerial usefulness of this segment using theoretical criteria of segment attractiveness. Results indicate that much is known about the distinctive characteristics of green tourists. Very little, however, has been done to assess whether green tourists are substantial enough to represent a useful target market, whether a customized marketing mix can be designed, whether they can be reached through specific communication channels and whether green tourists can be identified repeatedly. These results provide a clear direction for future research into the green tourist market segment which is essential for a marketing-oriented approach to sustainable tourism to be successful.

The popularity of online surveys is rising, yet the validity of survey data collected online is frequently questioned. This study compares online surveys versus paper surveys administered via regular mail in the tourism context, and examines in detail the extent and nature of survey bias resulting from survey format-specific respondent self-selection. Results suggest that (1) both online and mail samples deviate from census data population statistics regarding sociodemographics to the same extent (but differ in nature), (2) no differences exist in the contamination of data by response styles, (3) online respondents have a lower dropout rate and produce less incomplete data, and (4) responses to tourism-related questions differ significantly, indicating that survey format can dramatically influence results of empirical studies in tourism. Our findings show that neither pure online surveys nor pure paper surveys administered through regular mail are unbiased. Format-specific self-selection of respondents to participate leads to systematic biases in both cases, making multimethod survey approaches the most reliable way of data collection at present.

With rising interest in and concern about climate change and environmental sustainability, and the significance of the tourism industry worldwide, the impact of tourism-related activities and behaviors on the environment has become a key area of research. In particular, transport related to tourism has come under scrutiny for its contribution to the ecological footprint of tourism of a destination, mostly accounted for by the dominance of air travel. This study contributes to research in this area by identifying the types of travel situations in which tourists make environmentally friendly choices about travel modes and, consequently, which types of tourism destinations should seek to develop and promote in order to minimize the environmental impact of the tourist sector on both an individual destination and global scale. Short haul city travel is truly environmentally sustainable AbstractWith rising interest in and concern about climate change and environmental sustainability, and the significance of the tourism industry worldwide, the impact of tourism-related activities and behaviors on the environment has become a key area of research. In particular, transport related to tourism has come under scrutiny for its contribution to the ecological footprint of tourism of a destination, mostly accounted for by the dominance of air travel. This study contributes to research in this area by identifying the types of travel situations in which tourists make environmentally friendly choices about travel modes and, consequently, which types of tourism destinations should seek to develop and promote in order to minimize the environmental impact of the tourist sector on both an individual destination and global scale.