Name: Nudging for good: Can marketing science and responsible tour operations drive pro-environmental tourist behaviour?
Start: 2026-10-30T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2026-10-30T00:00:00.000Z

Many travellers support environmental protection in principle, yet holidays are shaped by habits, limited attention and unfamiliar settings. Small features of choice architecture can influence what people do without removing options. This webinar examines whether behavioural nudges can encourage lower-impact decisions and how marketing science can be connected with responsible tour operations to produce credible environmental benefits.

The session will consider familiar techniques such as defaults, timely prompts, social norms, feedback and clearer comparisons. It will ask when these approaches help travellers act on existing intentions and when they become manipulative. Evidence quality will be central, since a change that appears successful in a controlled trial may weaken, disappear or create unintended effects in a different setting.

Operational context matters as much as message design. Guests cannot choose sustainable transport, food or activities when viable options are absent. The discussion will therefore explore how communications, itineraries, staff practice, procurement and infrastructure work together. It will also examine rebound effects, where savings in one area may encourage greater consumption elsewhere, and the risk of placing systemic responsibility onto individuals. Operational evidence must remain equally visible.

Researchers, students, marketers and tourism practitioners will gain practical questions for evaluating interventions. Who benefits from the desired behaviour, how freely is the choice made and what outcome is actually measured? The webinar will argue for transparent, proportionate and testable approaches that respect visitor autonomy. Its broader aim is to connect behavioural insight with operational change rather than use persuasive language as a substitute for it.

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