Travel behavior of mountain bikers: : A case study on sustainable transportation choices

Abstract: Bearing in mind that the car as a mode of transportation is responsible for more than one third of all tourism-related emissions worldwide and that a growing number of destinations offer mountain biking as nature-based tourism product, it becomes relevant to investigate mountain bikers with regarding their travel behavior. Therefore, the aim of this master thesis is to understand the transportation mode choice behavior of mountain bike (MTB) tourists when engaging in mountain bike specific vacation. For this purpose, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is applied and adapted to the specificities of mountain bikers. The study explores the predictive power of the TPB and further extend the model to effectively and comprehensively predict mountain bikers intended behavior to use public transportation (PT). For this purpose, the following research question is posed: “What psychographic factors influence mountain bike tourists' intention to use public transportation when traveling to mountain bike-specific tourism destinations?” To answer the research question, a quantitative study was conducted using surveys. A web-based questionnaire was distributed to MTB tourists visiting the case study area Järvsö, Sweden, and received a total of 71 completed and error-free responses. Using SPSS, descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to assess and understand the demographic profile of the respondents and the potential influence of mountain bikers’ characteristics one their intention to use public transportation. In addition, multiple linear regression was carried out to determine the explanatory power of the extended TPB model to determine which psychographic factors influence the intention of mountain bikers to use PT. The results demonstrate that the theoretical model used, explains more than 33% of the intended behavior (BI) to use public transportation, while perceived behavioral control (PBC) is the only statistically significant psychographic factor. The descriptive analysis further suggests that primarily the lack of opportunities to use public transportation with a bicycle limits the usability for mountain bikers and thus negatively affects the other psychographic factors such as attitude, subjective norm, and habit. Increased PBC will raise the intention to use PT and could thereby produce positive significant results for the other predictors of TPB. While mountain biking can be a sustainable tourism product, the sustainability of MTB tourism will only become more sustainable through increased use of PT, no matter how resource efficient and environmentally friendly the activities offered may be. Consequently, both mountain bike-specific destinations and public transport providers need to enhance the usability of public transportation for mountain bikers through interventions and incentives in order to accomplish low-emission and thus more sustainable tourism.