{"title":"Free public transport to the destination: A causal analysis of tourists’ travel mode choice","authors":"Kevin Blättler, Hannes Wallimann, Widar von Arx","doi":"10.1016/j.tra.2024.104166","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this paper, we assess the impact of a fare-free public transport policy for overnight guests on travel mode choice to a Swiss tourism destination. The policy directly targets domestic transport to and from a destination, the substantial contributor to the CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span> emissions of overnight trips. Based on a survey sample, we identify the effect with the help of the random element that the information on the offer from a hotelier to the guest varies in day-to-day business. We estimate a shift from private cars to public transport due to the policy of, on average, 14.8 and 11.6 percentage points, depending on the application of propensity score matching and causal forest. This knowledge is relevant for policy-makers to design future public transport policies for tourists. Overall, our paper exemplifies how such an effect of natural experiments in the transport and tourism industry can be properly identified.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":49421,"journal":{"name":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 104166"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856424002143/pdfft?md5=ac4742b4107a7f3370f04d93d5dc6706&pid=1-s2.0-S0965856424002143-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Transportation Research Part A-Policy and Practice","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856424002143","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In this paper, we assess the impact of a fare-free public transport policy for overnight guests on travel mode choice to a Swiss tourism destination. The policy directly targets domestic transport to and from a destination, the substantial contributor to the CO emissions of overnight trips. Based on a survey sample, we identify the effect with the help of the random element that the information on the offer from a hotelier to the guest varies in day-to-day business. We estimate a shift from private cars to public transport due to the policy of, on average, 14.8 and 11.6 percentage points, depending on the application of propensity score matching and causal forest. This knowledge is relevant for policy-makers to design future public transport policies for tourists. Overall, our paper exemplifies how such an effect of natural experiments in the transport and tourism industry can be properly identified.
期刊介绍:
Transportation Research: Part A contains papers of general interest in all passenger and freight transportation modes: policy analysis, formulation and evaluation; planning; interaction with the political, socioeconomic and physical environment; design, management and evaluation of transportation systems. Topics are approached from any discipline or perspective: economics, engineering, sociology, psychology, etc. Case studies, survey and expository papers are included, as are articles which contribute to unification of the field, or to an understanding of the comparative aspects of different systems. Papers which assess the scope for technological innovation within a social or political framework are also published. The journal is international, and places equal emphasis on the problems of industrialized and non-industrialized regions.
Part A''s aims and scope are complementary to Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Part C: Emerging Technologies and Part D: Transport and Environment. Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. The complete set forms the most cohesive and comprehensive reference of current research in transportation science.