Responsible Tourism Qualmark Accreditation: a comparative evaluation of tourism businesses and tourists’ perceptions

The Responsible Tourism Qualmark (RTQ) scheme is part of the New Zealand Ministry of Tourism’s effort to improve the sustainability of tourism industry practices. This research seeks to understand why businesses incorporate sustainable practices through RTQ, and how tourists respond to the concept of responsible tourism. The research comprised of two elements: (1) Self-administered surveys completed by tourists staying at RTQ accredited businesses (N=66); (2) Semi-structured interviews conducted with RTQ accredited businesses’ senior management (N=24). Results indicate that both businesses and tourists have confidence in the RTQ’s ability to deliver responsible practices. A large range of exogenous and endogenous pressures motivated businesses to engage in responsible tourism practices. Likewise, tourists demonstrated their support for the responsible tourism concept, in principle. However, this support is not yet translated into actual pressure. In addition to the identified motivators, businesses were analysed with respect to their degree of environmental awareness. Based on this, a segmentation of three types emerged: (1) The Devotees - those who hold high environmental awareness; (2) The Compliers - those who have some environmental awareness; and (3) The Opportunists - those who hold no environmental concern. This analysis helps explain the division between actors holding high environmental awareness and joining RQT for altruistic reasons, from actors holding low or no environmental awareness. The latter are largely motivated by legitimacy and competitiveness drives. This new understanding highlights an essential component in building operator capability of delivering responsible products: addressing the unique motivations, needs and constraints of each business type