GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PERCEPTION ON SUSTAINABLE TOURISM – CASE STUDY APPLIED TO THE PU IN PREŠOV

Abstract

Sustainable tourism is the concept of travelling and discovering destinations in which the visitor takes full account and respect to the culture, environment and community of a visiting country. The awareness of the increasing global problems related to the environment leads to the change of the consumer behaviour. The aim of the article is to present results of the analysis which was focusing on evaluating the perception of the concept of sustainable tourism. Furthermore, this article identifies the attitudes towards this concept and differences in opinions between genders, among the students of the University of Prešov. The primary source of information was obtained through a questionnaire survey, which sample consisted of 460 students out of which 58.04% were women and 41.96% were men. The questionnaire was processed and evaluated in the MS Excel, Statistica 13.4 and Statgraphics XVIII using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Mann-Whitney test, Kendall rank correlation coefficient. The final results showed that students of the University of Prešov perceive a negative demand of sustainable tourism in Slovakia. In every statement related to sustainable tourism, men showed a more negative approach than women. Slighter different opinion among men and women were noticed in the willingness to financially support the development of sustainable tourism.

Keywords

• sustainability
• sustainable tourism
• consumer behaviour
• young travellers