Sustainable choice of transport at destinations - influencing factors of public transport and bicycling in Germany

Various academic disciplines discuss means of transportation. This paper presents an analysis of selected determinants of the choice of means of transport in tourism. This research is the first of its kind that is based on representative data for holiday traffic at the destination with a focus on the main holiday trips of German-speaking persons living in Germany. The objective was to learn more about the determinants that influence the tourists' choice of mode of transport at the holiday destination. This is intended to contribute to the sustainable mobility of tourists. According to this approach, the main emphasis is placed on public transport and bicycle/e-bike as means of transportation within the destination. Statistically significant differences can be observed for public transport in eleven out of seventeen and for bicycle/e-bike in sixteen out of seventeen included determinants. When examining the effect sizes, however, it becomes apparent that for most variables only a slight to weak effect strength can be detected. The effect strengths for public transport and bicycle/e-bike use differ from each other in some of the determinants. While for public transport the family status, the choice of transport mode on arrival and - by some distance - the availability of a car in the household stand out in the strength of the association, there are no such prevailing variables for bicycle use. Yet, there are several variables for which a weak association can be observed, that also occurs for public transport. This is the case for age, current occupation, household size, number of passengers and type of holidays.