Roman holiday: Tourist heterogeneous preferences for walking path elements

Abstract

This paper investigates tourists' preferences in Rome (Italy) with respect to their “last mile” transport walking experience. Stated preference experiments and discrete choice models are used to estimate tourists' preferences for alternative walking paths configurations, taking into account path characteristics and conditions (e.g. public services presence, interference with other modes of transport and thermal comfort). We estimate Multinomial logit (MNL) models on the base of 365 choice experiments. The most important attribute is cleanliness, followed by green spaces. The paper estimates both time elasticity and the “willingness to walk” with respect to different path attributes. Segmenting the sample and estimating different MNL models allows considering preference heterogeneity. Results show there are some differences within the sample. In fact, those who usually walk are willing to walk more than others given some improvements in the path. Besides, we also propose, on the base of the last walking path followed, a “tourist walking satisfaction index” linked to utility. This sheds light on tourists' walking experience in different zones of the study area. In particular, adding restrooms along the paths increases tourist walking satisfaction the most. The paper provides useful information for policy-makers on how to plan, design and manage walking networks.

Introduction

Cities host most of the world population and this phenomenon is expected to grow in the next years (UN - United Nations, 2015). In this dynamic environment, the mobility of people and goods represents a key element of urban life, determining economic advantages, while also generating high social costs (e.g. pollution, congestion). Transport policies usually aim at improving citizens' quality of life, by focusing on increasing the level of service of the transport system and reducing its negative externalities (Banister, 2008). Nevertheless, especially in cities with a strong touristic vocation, policies should also consider the specific needs of tourists (Hall, 1999). Their general experience correlates to the fruition of the city's transport system. In this respect, tourism and transport are strictly interwoven and reciprocally affect one another. From one side, the touristic experience of a city is strictly related to the fruition of its transport system whereas from the other, especially in cities with a strong touristic vocation, touristic flows affect the urban transport system, thus requiring appropriate transport policies to satisfy also these specific needs.

Encouraging the use of active transport modes for tourists, e.g. walking or cycling, is one of the best strategies to foster sustainable mobility and tourism (Page, 2004). Besides, they usually represent the last mile of any trips tourists perform. Their walking experience is very important to determine their satisfaction level with respect to the touristic destination. Nevertheless, this has rarely been considered in research and, even less, in planning. In this respect, Hall and Ram (2019) acknowledge that walking is one of the most common activities tourists undertake when travelling, but it is also one of the less investigated activities when it comes to tourism research.

This paper scrutinises tourists' preferences in Rome (Italy), with respect to the “last mile” of their transport experience which usually takes place by walking. We use Stated Preference (SP) experiments and Discrete Choice Models (DCM) to estimate tourists' preferences with respect to alternative walking paths configurations, taking into considerations path quality, interference with other modes of transport and thermal comfort-related aspects.

The research question this paper addresses is: what are the relevant factors affecting tourists' walking behaviour? The intent is to provide policy-makers with useful information so to optimize the design and management of walking networks. Results also set the basis for the definition of a “tourist walking satisfaction index” that can possibly be used in a tourist traveller information system to guide them in the city according to their specific walking preferences. This would allow increasing their enjoyment and thus improve the whole touristic experience. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents a succinct yet updated literature review to position the paper in the context of transport and tourism, especially with respect to urban mobility and the last mile of tourist walking experience. Section 3 presents the methods used, while section 4 provides more details about the specific case study. Section 5 illustrates the results, while section 6 concludes the paper highlighting both limitations and further research directions.