Modeling tourist accessibility to peripheral attractions

Urban destinations worldwide face the challenge of spreading tourists from central urban areas to less visited peripheral areas. However, visiting peripheral attractions often implies lengthy journeys and the engagement of multiple means of transport. This study provides a conceptual and methodological framework to assess utility-based tourist accessibility to peripheral urban attractions. A discrete choice experiment was designed to investigate tourist preferences with respect to different types and ratings of tourist attractions and the key characteristics of collective and individual public transport alternatives. The estimation of a hybrid choice model provides empirical evidence for the relevance of repeat visitation, length of stay and public transport system perceptions in the assessment of tourist accessibility to peripheral urban attractions.