Csilla Demeter

University of Queensland | UQ · School of Business

To establish whether interventions ultimately change behavior, they are best tested in the field. However, there is no clear consensus on how to pre-select such interventions. To address this, we propose an extended pre-testing protocol in the lead-up to field studies. This extended protocol combines different approaches by (1) distinguishing betwe...

Washing just 1kg of towels in a modern machine uses approximately 13L of water, 0.2 kWh of heat energy and 0.12 kWh of electrical energy. Prompting guests to reuse their towels will benefit the environment and save hotels money. Environmental appeals and interventions that aim to trigger social norms have been used in the past to achieve this – wit...

Tourism generates 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions. One way of reducing emissions is to deploy behavioral change interventions that entice tourists to behave in more sustainable ways. In search of the most effective approaches, we conducted a meta-analysis of 118 interventions tested in field experiments in the tourism context. Most studies targe...

Recent reviews of field experiments aiming to entice tourists to behave in more environmentally sustainable ways conclude that attitudes – while the primary target – do not perform as well as expected. This critical review analyses in detail when attitudes have or have not been successful as behavioural change targets and proposes a conceptual fram...

Hotel guests expect daily room cleaning, despite its negative environmental consequences. To trigger voluntary opt-out of daily room cleaning, we test the potential of theory-informed messages based on value belief norm theory, social identity and identity theory, hedonic psychology, and the path of least resistance (effort and habit). In a survey...

Purpose Recent reviews of field experiments aiming to entice tourists to behave in more environmentally sustainable ways conclude that attitudes – while the primary target – do not perform as well as expected. The purpose of this study is to analyse in detail when attitudes have or have not been successful as behavioural change targets and propose...

Annals of Tourism Research has a long history of knowledge creation through a wide range of diverse research designs. This study: (1) proposes a conceptual framework of knowledge creation types; (2) determines the frequency of each type; and (3) derives recommendations on how to generate more valid and generalisable tourism knowledge in future. Key...

The global aspiration to mitigate climate change puts substantial pressure on the tourism sector – one of the most polluting industries – to operate in more sustainable ways. This study reviews intervention experiments in tourism and hospitality aimed at making tourist behaviour more sustainable. The analysis of 53 field experiments reveals the mos...

The development of wellbeing during a vacation and immediately afterward is well understood. It remains unclear, however, how eudaimonia and hedonia differ across typical home and vacation contexts. Given that eudaimonia and hedonia drive behavior, understanding contextual differences can guide the development of targeted behavioral change interven...

The global aspiration to mitigate climate change puts substantial pressure on the tourism sector – one of the most polluting industries – to operate in more sustainable ways. This study reviews intervention experiments in tourism and hospitality aimed at making tourist behaviour more sustainable. The analysis of 53 field experiments reveals the mos...

Vacations are assumed to be characterised by enjoyment. More specifically, the level of enjoyment on vacation is assumed to be substantially higher than that of a normal day at home. Yet, this assumption has never been empirically tested. This study provides initial empirical evidence for the fact that all enjoyment-related constructs at the core o...

Coral reefs provide important ecosystem services as well as economic and cultural benefits to society. Yet they are under significant threat from anthropogenic and natural threats, including climate change. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is one such reef undergoing significant change. More radical interventions that go beyond traditional form...

The tourism industry contributes eight percent to global carbon emissions, directly and indirectly. Indirect carbon emissions are often neglected because they are difficult to calculate. The traditional approach to calculating indirect emissions – Life Cycle Assessment – is expensive and requires an expert data analyst. We introduce an alternative...

The tourism industry contributes eight percent to global carbon emissions, directly and indirectly. Indirect carbon emissions are often neglected because they are difficult to calculate. The traditional approach to calculating indirect emissions – Life Cycle Assessment – is expensive and requires an expert data analyst. We introduce an alternative...

Purpose This study examined tourists' reactions to a hypothetical service failure, to better understand how tourists’ cognitive and emotional evaluations affect their overall assessments of a service organisation in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Design A quantitative (n = 414) between subjects’ factorial experimental design experiment was c...