It’s greener to dive in the Philippines! : A qualitative study of green marketing in dive and adventure tourism.

Abstract: Purpose and research question: The purpose of this study is to provide and attain a deeper understanding of how the business philosophy of green marketing affects recreational adventure tourism. Further, the study intends to identify and analyze green marketing in relation to service development, green marketing strategies, branding, segmentation and positioning in the dive tourism sector. This has formulated our research question: How does green marketing affect adventure tourism? Methodology: A qualitative research method offers a deeper understanding of the effects of green marketing in the context of recreational dive tourism sector which is currently one of the fastest growing categories of adventure tourism. The study has followed an abductive research approach with an inductive initial departure and thereafter a simultaneously assemble of a theoretical framework during the sequence of conducting ten in-depth interviews. Conclusion: During this study we have identified tendencies deriving from the empirical findings and the literature review. The theoretical implications of this thesis involve filling the research gap of green marketing in a context of dive and adventure tourism. Furthermore, the practical implications involve that an implementation of green marketing can imply competitive advantages and exert a strong differentiation effect on brands. Thus, the integration of green performances and the communication sustainability could facilitate the dive tourism sector’s development towards increased environmental awareness. We further argue that the effects of green marketing in the dive tourism could be applicable in other categories of adventure tourism due to its dependency on nature and the current increasing trend of environmental awareness.