A survey of tourist attitudes to renewable energy supply in Australian hotel accommodation

Abstract

The results of a survey are presented describing the attitudes of Australian tourists to micro-generation renewable energy supply (RES) for hotel accommodation. The average positive response rate to all questions was above 50%, implying a desire by tourists for environmentally friendly accommodation and renewable energy supply. Tourists indicated that they perceived RES to be reliable and expressed a willingness to cooperate with RES initiatives and possible resultant inconveniences. However, there were mixed opinions with regard to consumer willingness to pay for the product. Of the 49% of respondents who were willing to pay extra for RES, 92% replied they would pay between 1% and 5%. Analysis of the variation in response due to accommodation type revealed a 'city' hotel versus 'eco-resort' difference. Likewise, a breakdown of responses according to country of origin indicated that Australians had a more positive attitude to RES than overseas visitors, including Japanese and Americans. While no variation in response was detected according to gender, age had a measurable bearing on response, with older guests returning a higher positive response rate. Visual queue questions querying aesthetic opinions and 'not-in-my-backyard' (NIMBY) attitude to RES revealed that there was virtually no opposition to photovoltaics. Opinions regarding wind energy conversion systems (WECS) varied with type and location, with rooftop WECS receiving more acceptance than stand-alone varieties. A high level of visual acceptance was shown by respondents for onshore wind farms located close to a tourist accommodation centre, with less enthusiasm for offshore farms. A strong NIMBY attitude to WECS was not observed among Australian or local respondents. r

Which Factors Affect the Willingness of Tourists to Pay for Renewable Energy?

“…The importance of age on willingness to pay for RES was also reported by Dalton et al (2008), who performed a frequency statistics analysis. Note: ***, *, represent levels of significance at 1% and 10%, respectively.…”

Public Perceptions and Willingness to Pay for Renewable Energy: A Case Study from Greece

“…A positive relation has already been identified between WTP, income, and level of information [37,38]. In a study examining attitudes towards RES, Australian tourists were willing to pay 1-5% more for the existence of renewable energy systems within their accommodation units [39]. For the case of Sweden, by using binary logistic regression, it was found that people with increased environmental awareness are more likely to accept renewable energy [40].…”

Perceptions on Renewable Energy Use in Malaysia: Mediating Role of Attitude

“…Rogers et al (2011) and West et al (2010) suggest availing economic incentive to ease the financial burden from the users. However, there are studies on willingness to pay while using renewable energy as an alternative energy, that reported negative opinion from the users' in Australia, United Kingdom, Greece and China (Dalton, Lockington & Baldock 2008;Faiers & Neame 2006;Zhu, Zhang, Du, Zhou, Qiu & Li 2011;Zografakis et al 2010). The summary of these studies indicates that on the average the users are reluctant to pay more than 5-percent as additional cost for renewable energy usage compared to the cost they are paying now.…”

“…Growth of renewable energy usage has been much slower than expected due to less relative advantages of the new technology compared to easy to use and easy to manage energy solutions (Stephenson & Loannou 2010). Relative advantage of a new technology includes cost, social impact as well aesthetics and other behavioural factors (Dalton et al 2008). Relative advantage is ensured if the new technology offers a higher value, is designed based on local taste, and offers a replacement benefit if the users want to go back to earlier technology (Brohmann et al 2007;Mallett 2007;Silva 2008 Technology acceptance model identifies attitude towards using (ATU) as a mediator between behavioural intention to buy, and perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness.…”