Applying the concept of site substitution to coastal tourism

Abstract

Tourists are often willing to substitute an original site with another choice when the original site becomes unavailable or they are not satisfied with their experience. The concept of substitution has been developed and used to understand recreationists’ site and activity choice behaviors but is still new in the tourism context. This study intends to understand what factors are important to explain coastal tourists’ site substitution decisions and to explore whether there is any difference in site substitution decisions by geographical scale. Using the multinomial logit model, study results indicated that activity-general motivations, place identity, site-specific attributes, and sociodemographic variables were influential factors in tourists’ site substitutability. Understanding tourist site substitution will help policy makers maximize the economic benefits of tourism development and minimize negative ecological impacts in coastal areas. Findings further addressed the importance of understanding site substitution with geographic distribution.