Road Transport for Tourism: Evaluating Policy Measures from Consumer Profiles

A rise in the number of tourists at many destinations and their increased mobility in host countries or regions have led to a growth in tourism-associated externalities. Although there is a trend for governments to centre their transport policies on the supply side, promoting the development of different infrastructures and services or intervening in tourism markets, this paper presents an alternative way of thinking by analysing tourist demand profiles to detect those that tend to opt for private transport. The authors investigate different strategies in tourism policies designed to reduce the number of tourists using private motor vehicle transport and to promote public, group or charter transport at destinations. Taking the Balearic Islands as a case study, discrete choice models are employed to assess different ways of modelling the transport demand function for hire cars, other private cars, public buses and coaches, and thus to identify the corrective potential of the proposed policies.