How Demographics Influence Travel Choices? An Investigation on Sustainable Accommodation Booking Behavior

Considering sustainable travel accommodation as a mechanism to increase the sustainability of the whole tourism industry, this paper explores whether demographic characteristics, such as gender, age, education, occupation, and income, influence tourists’ green purchasing behavior. We adopted a quantitative approach to test the hypotheses concerning the relationship between consumer demographics and measures of green purchasing behavior (intention, actual behavior, and willingness to pay a price premium). The study surveyed 747 tourists who have visited the Canary Islands at least once. The research results indicate that gender plays a significant role in sustainable travel accommodation booking intention. Younger travelers tend to have a stronger intention and willingness to pay a premium price compared to older ones. Additionally, higher income is related to lower booking intention, actual booking behavior, and willingness to pay a premium price. These findings suggest that demographic variables can explain travelers’ sustainable accommodation booking behavior to some extent.