Do buses help meet tourism objectives? The contribution and potential of scheduled buses in rural destination areas
Introduction
Using new data from an extensive survey of bus users in rural tourist destinations, this paper examines how bus services address three recurring themes in tourism policy: environmental, social and economic sustainability (Department for Transport and the Regions, 1998; Department of Culture and Media and Sport, 1999; Scottish Executive, 2005; Welsh Assembly Government, 2003). It finds clear evidence that scheduled bus services are helping to reduce car use, enabling people without cars to reach such destination areas and contributing to local economies. However, the findings also suggest that such services, with some simple improvements, could increase their attractiveness to and use by targeted segments of the travel market.
A number of agencies are responsible for policy formation in tourism and its implementation at a national and local level. The three core themes: environmental, social and economic sustainability, albeit with varying emphases, are found in the majority of their policy documents (Gray et al., 2001), yet, in recent decades, visitors to the countryside have increasingly adopted modes of travel which bring negative externalities such as noise, emissions and pollution (Countryside Agency, 2003). This not only threatens the environmental sustainability of many environmentally fragile areas, it also risks their economic sustainability by encroaching on the qualities (such as tranquillity, unspoiltness) which attract visitors and their spending. This has led several authors, such as Sharpley (2001; p. 57), to suggest that ‘a dichotomy exists between the general principles and objectives of sustainable development and their application to the specific context of tourism’. Currently many local authorities and national parks are reducing their financial support to rural public transport (Reeves, 2006; p. 3) while ‘traffic restraint measures to discourage leisure travel by the private car remain a low priority for many National Park Authorities’ (Reeves, 2006; p. 3). This widens the gap, between those with and without their own private transport, in opportunities to enjoy such areas. With the loss of Countryside Agency support in England, additional funding to local government sources lies firmly with the Regional Development Agencies, who have not yet readily addressed the problem (Wood, 2005).
This paper first explains the extent of leisure travel how it differs from utility travel. It describes how policies for tourism and travel interact and then discusses the findings of previous research into the leisure travel. The reasons for Tourism on Board, the project's name, are explained on the next section and the way in which the survey was conducted and the findings analysed are described. The findings are presented in the next section. They cover which passengers had a car available to them on the day they made the bus journey, the reasons people used buses, what passengers said they would do if the bus had not been running, how much they spent, what they spent it on and how the bus service could be improved. The last section summarises the conclusions of the research.
Section snippets
Leisure travel
‘Leisure travel’ covers a wide variety of trips both to and for leisure purposes, including getting to holiday or day-trip destinations, visiting friends and relations and accessing leisure activities such as sport events, social gatherings and entertainment away from the home. Leisure differs from utility travel in three main ways:
- •
it involves high levels of discretion, not only whether to travel, but choice of destination, mode and time of travel,
- •
the journey frequently entails ‘intrinsic’
Reasons for survey
The research from which this paper draws its evidence was conducted in 18 areas of the UK on scheduled buses in tourist areas (see Fig. 1). Although there were many differences between the types of service, they were all in rural areas and the services were all designed primarily for the needs of visitors travelling to and for recreational activities. They included nine National Parks, areas of outstanding natural beauty and other rural areas which attract visitors to enjoy sightseeing and
Passenger profile
In comparison with national census data, older people are over-represented and younger people under-represented in the survey (see Fig. 2) and there are more female respondents (55.7%) than male (44.3%). Some of this may be due to higher response rates from older people and females, but confirms surveyors’ impressions of the composition of bus passengers and is similar to previous findings (Lumsdon et al., 2006). Only 4.9% of respondents were from ethnic minorities, who account for 8.0% of the
Conclusions
Transport remains a fundamental element of sustainable tourism development, but as yet the tourism growth model means that tourism and transport planners continue to prescribe options which encourage the private car and do little for environmental sustainability and social inclusion. The traditional ‘stick’ and ‘carrot’ approach to the management of car travel to and within rural destinations has rarely been effectively implemented. Although there is increasing evidence to suggest that pricing
References (34)
Complacent car addicts or aspiring environmentalists? Identifying travel behaviour segments using attitude theory
Transport Policy
(2005)- et al.
Rural traffic management: the Burrator reservoir experiment
Transport Policy
(1996) - et al.
Journeys to heritage attractions in the UK: a case study of National Trust property visitors in the South West
Journal of Transport Geography
(2004) - et al.
The evaluation of public transport alternatives to the car in British National Parks
Journal of Transport Geography
(1996) - et al.
Re-conceptualising rural resources as countryside capital: the case of rural tourism
Journal of Rural Studies
(2006) - et al.
Car dependence in rural Scotland: transport policy, devolution and the impact on fuel duty
Journal of Rural Studies
(2001) - et al.
Achieving a balance between ‘‘carrots’’ and ‘‘sticks’’ for traffic in National Parks: the Bayerischer Wald project
Transport Policy
(1998) Factors affecting the design of tourism buses
Annals of Tourism Research
(2006)- et al.
Road pricing in national parks: a case study on the Yorkshire Dales National Park
Transport Policy
(2000) The State of the Countryside 2003
(2003)
Tomorrow's Tourism
Improving Social Inclusion
Transport Trends 2005 Edition
A New Deal for Transport: Better for Everyone
Local transport and social representations: challenging the assumptions for sustainable tourism
Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Tourism transport and visitor spending: a study in the North York Moors National Park, UK
Journal of Travel Research
Cited by (57)
Integrating parcel delivery schedules with public transport networks in urban co-modality systems
2024, Computers and Operations ResearchTravel behavior on vacation: transport mode choice of tourists at destinations
2022, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and PracticeDeterminants of holistic passenger experience in public transportation: Scale development and validation
2021, Journal of Retailing and Consumer ServicesCitation Excerpt :observed that purpose of journey also influences the travel choice. In addition, influence of environmental factors like atmosphere and climate change (Hares et al., 2010), not having to drive (Guiver et al., 2007), and online reviews (Ayeh et al., 2013; Kim et al., 2021) on travel behaviour were examined. Most importantly, few studies have highlighted the role of pre-service activities (Le Bel, 2005b; Nathanail, 2008), post-service activities (Pullman and Gross, 2004) and multichannel experiences (Brun et al., 2020; Patrício, Fisk, & e Cunha, 2008) on overall travel experience.
What prompts tourists to become public transportation users at their destination? The case of a Mediterranean city
2021, Travel Behaviour and SocietyThe attitudes of tourists towards a bus service: Implications for policy from a Maltese case study
2017, Transportation Research ProcediaSustainability Impact of Bus Priority Treatments in Small-Scale Cities
2023, Transportation Research Record