Out of the city – but how and where? A mode-destination choice model for urban–rural tourism trips in Austria

Abstract

Rural tourism is dominated by car travel. To attract tourists and facilitate a modal shift, a greater understanding is needed on the factors driving tourist decisions. This paper examines destination and transport mode choices as a combined choice in the context of urban-rural tourism in Austria. To do this, this article explores two different model structures, ultimately using a multinomial logit model, which is rooted in the random utility theory. The analysed data are based on a large tourism survey, with additional trip and destination characteristics annotated later on to allow for the anticipated focus on supply-side factors. The results show that (1) destination and transport mode choices are intertwined decisions, (2) car and public transport (PT) travellers perceive travel time and distance differently, (3) a high-quality web presence is the strongest destination attractor, (4) walkability facilitates both destination and public transport attractiveness, and (5) daily and tourist mobility are connected through underlying mobility cultures. These results have various policy and planning implications, especially for destination attempting to transition towards more sustainable tourism futures by means of new transport or tourism offers or social marketing measures targeting both tourists with their personal values and practices as well as tourism-related institutions.

Intra-destination travel behavior of alpine tourists: a literature review on choice determinants and the survey work

“…For instance, Simma et al (2002) analyze the destination choice for leisure activities of Swiss residents within Switzerland. Similarly, Juschten and Hössinger (2021) examined the joint choice of destination and transport mode among the Viennese population traveling on summer vacation within Austria. Bhat et al (2016) apply the Multiple Discrete-Continuous Probit model to study the leisure destination choice of domestic tourists in New Zealand.…”

In search of sustainable and inclusive mobility solutions for rural areas

“…Easy access to information seems to be especially important for tourists, who have no prior knowledge of local transport opportunities [ 61 ]. The need to understand the details of the local network, various ticketing options, or the locations of stops may increase the perceived risk factor of DRT [ 40 ]. If tourists have some previous experience with the destination [ 14 ] or if they have experienced problems in finding parking space [ 63 ], they might be more prone to use alternative modes of transport to private vehicles.…”

Mindsets Set in Concrete? Exploring the Perspectives of Domestic Travellers on New Zealand’s (Auto-)Mobility Culture

“…(1) sociodemographic features including available mobility tools age, gender, education, income, car ownership, PT ticket [19][20][21] (2) overall trip characteristics length of stay, budget, travel party, spontaneity of trip booking [19,20,22] (3) transport mode attributes travel time, costs, service quality [22][23][24][25] (4) destination features tourism and transport infrastructure [20,25,26] Subjective Influence Factors (5) attitudes, norms, perceptions attitudes towards cars and PT and relevant destinations, risk perceptions [21,27,28] (6) travel motivations and related experiential expectations i.e. relaxing, sports, culture, expectation of privacy, adventure [9,29,30] Some qualitative studies using alternative methodologies also display a bias towards these utility-maximization narratives, and both their research set-up and resulting data is shaped that way [31].…”

“…relaxing, sports, culture, expectation of privacy, adventure [9,29,30] Some qualitative studies using alternative methodologies also display a bias towards these utility-maximization narratives, and both their research set-up and resulting data is shaped that way [31]. Especially in empirical studies, only a little focus is given to the cultural meanings of automobility, and the related drivers and barriers to behaviour change [25,32].…”

“…In that context, transport operators should prioritise people's comfort and need for privacy and personal space over high vehicle occupancy when designing PT [78]. For rural travel, a train network strongly relies on flexible, most likely car-based travel options at the destination itself, although the walkability of destinations has been shown to facilitate PT use [25]. Assessing possible PT business models and respective demand patterns would be a necessary step, within which a strong emphasis should be placed on the experiential expectations of tourists in situ and en route (see .…”