Effects of third-party information on the demand for more sustainable consumption: A choice experiment on the transition of winter tourism

Sustainability transitions involve a dynamic interaction of regulation, innovation, and preferences for new products. In this study we examine consumer preferences as a potential driver of supply side innovations in the winter tourism industry. We use a novel survey approach that allows for heuristic decision-making based on information from third parties. Specifically, we investigate consumer preferences when (i) only factual information and (ii) factual information and environmental NGO or consumer recommendations are available. The third-party information significantly affected the destination choices in about one third of the examined choice sets. The results indicate a willingness to pay for some of the examined sustainability attributes, and they point to specific differences among different tourist groups. Regarding methodology we suggest that survey experiments involving third-party information are useful for the study of choices about product or policy innovations in dynamic markets where standard assumptions on preferences and rationality may not apply. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.