Social and economic restrictions due to the travel behaviour of Austrian tourists. Qualitative research on climate-friendly lifestyles and travel behaviours

Background of the study: Climate change and rapid global warming are scientifically proven to be man-made. The consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly visible and terms such as "climate protection" are used more and more frequently in our society. There are only a few feasible political solutions to this global problem and for this reason, people are deciding to change their lifestyle and travel behaviour. There are already some studies on climate-friendly lifestyles, but none on whether the lifestyle is socially and economically compatible. In order to analyse people’s travel behaviour at first a general lifestyle study of this new target group needed to be carried out. Purpose of the study: For that reason, the research question of this study was “How does living a climate-friendly lifestyle affect the social and economic lives of these people”? Furthermore, travelling is a big part of our societies, so the second question did arise: "How does a climate-friendly lifestyle affect the travel behaviour?". This work tried to clarify which restrictions people have to live with by travelling climate-friendly. Methodology: After an extensive literature research on the topics of sustainability, climate change, lifestyles and environmentally and climate-friendly lifestyles the theoretical part was completed with research on climate-friendly tourism and "green tourists". Based on a typology, subjects were selected for the subsequent empirical research. The qualitative survey with eight climate-friendly-living people enabled a deep insight into the living habits of the respondents. Through the interviews, insights and possible challenges in implementing this lifestyle were identified. In order to organize the statements a coding guide has been established. The insights were evaluated by creating six subcategories “climate-friendly lifestyle”, “motivation”, “lifestyle-change”, “social life”, “economic life” and “travel behavior” by using the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. Results: The results of the research brought different insights. In the social environment of the climate-friendly persons are other persons who live climate-friendly. Therefore, there is an interaction between social life and climate-conscious lifestyles. However, it could not be confirmed that this lifestyle has a negative effect on financial and economic life, but in some cases, it also brings advantages. After the analyzation of their travel behaviour, it can be concluded that people who live in a climate-friendly way would like to be offered cheaper bus and train tickets. All respondents criticized the small offer of climate-friendly possibilities in Austria and a strong desire for a larger offer at climate-friendly alternatives and products could be determined. The social environment and travel partners of these people often didn’t accept using a certain mean of transport due to the high costs of bus and train tickets and longer travel times. Therefore, the climate-friendly lifestyle is associated with social and economic restrictions. The knowledge gained in this work serves as sociological lifestyle research and target group research for tourism stakeholder and companies that want to successfully serve dynamic tourism market in a sustainable way by adapting to global warming and changing societies. Conclusions: Climate-friendly lifestyle is associated with social and economic restrictions. However, it could not be confirmed that this lifestyle has a negative effect on financial and economic life, but in some cases, it also brings advantages. All respondents criticized the small offer of climate-friendly possibilities in Austria, larger offers at climate-friendly alternatives and products were desired. The knowledge gained in this work serves as a sociological lifestyle and target group research for tourism stakeholders and companies that want to successfully serve the dynamic tourism market in a sustainable way by adapting to global warming and changing societies. Research implications and limitations: The results show different expressions of climate-friendly life and travel styles. The qualitative research was conducted to gain first insights into the still unexplored topic of the effects of climate-friendly lifestyles. The small sample was selected as this is a pilot study. Especially lifestyle research is highly complex and socio-scientifically fascinating since lifestyles are an expression of general conditions. Future researchers should specialize in the communication of climate-friendly products to the consumer. 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