Sustainability Transitions in Rural Tourism Travel: Understanding Global South Travel Practices using the case of Bali Island, Indonesia.

Abstract

Practicing sustainable travel to rural areas is challenging. Public transport barely covers rural areas, while active travel often requires advanced physical ability. Whilst the Global South has a low exposure to sustainable tourism transport research, they have difficulties providing adequate public infrastructure leading to rapid motorisation. Beyond environmental issues, rural travel sustainability transition in the Global South also includes social challenges. Social concerns arise responding to new environmentally sustainable transport initiatives as residents benefit from facilitating less sustainable travel modes. Hence, this research aims to analyse how rural tourism travel practices can be made more sustainable by focusing on Bali as a major destination in Asia Pacific. Previous travel studies often used behavioural theory, however it has limited ability to explain the interplay between individual practices and the social structure surrounding them. A ‘middle theory’ is required as a lens to examine complex sustainability transition challenges. Social practice theory presents a deeper understanding of travel by considering the interplay between transport form and availability, tourists’ competences to make use of the provision, and the meanings associated with use. A sequential mixed methods approach is employed with semi- structured interviews followed by a tourist survey to explore rural travel practices and identify rural traveller segments, respectively. A multi-level perspective is added as a complementary framework to examine potential policy interventions. The research demonstrates destination transport provision has evolved to meet residents’ needs for travel and income generation, shaping transport options for tourists. Transport peculiarity in Global South contexts necessitates a locally fitted sustainability transition approach, thus the prevalence of local transport modes and transport economy should be leveraged instead of adopting common interventions from the Global North. Further, cluster analysis results show different rural travel practices are performed by various segments, implying which travel market that Bali needs to focus on. Policy interventions to reduce sustainable travel competence gaps between segments could prepare destinations to move away from long-haul traveller segments in the long term. To this end, managing multilevel governance and stakeholders of the rural tourism travel regime is paramount, enabling more sustainable transport options to emerge. This research contributes a new perspective to the broader tourism travel sustainability transition pathways, calling for other Global South areas to present their own strategy that fits effectively with local contexts without falling into a ‘more consumption’ scenario.