Tourism and Public Transport

• Published in: The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Tourism, Second Edition
• Main Author: Azman I.; Jean L.X.; Hall C.M.; Prayag G.
• Format: Book chapter
• Language: English
• Published: wiley 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85206144161&doi=10.1002%2f9781119753797.ch22&partnerID=40&md5=a9331f8e918a638d02276cdc806a51da

Despite the important interrelationships between transport and tourism, research on public transport and tourism remains limited. The role of transport can be generally seen as: an essential/utility of bringing the tourists to tourism destinations and enabling them to move between places at the destinations (transport for tourism); and/or transport that is used as part of the tourism attractions to enrich the tourists’ experiences (transport as tourism). Public transport is usually considered as a basic transport service. Public transport research has also largely focused on the local travel, and there is a need for more knowledge about the specifics of regional public transport. This circumstance raises the question, if public transport is or can become the tourists’ choice for travelling long-haul, especially if more time-consuming or expensive than other transport modes. In this chapter, the authors examine tourist use of public transport at tourism destinations, emphasising the various factors that influence tourists’ travel-transport behaviour, in terms of personal characteristics (socio-demographic and psychographic factors), trip characteristics and public transport attributes. The chapter then discusses the relationship between tourism and public transport and public transport as tourist experience and attraction before concluding © 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.