Commercialization Formulas of the Responsible Tourism in Spain: Reality and Trends

This communication tries to analyze formulas of commercialization of the responsible tourism in Spain. Real and current cases of experiences are established, and, from the lines of analysis and strategy of the recent theoretical frame on the matter and an empirical study, we propose market routes of promotion of the responsible tourism in Spain. The impact of the technology and of the economy of the knowledge helps to understand the dysfunctions associated with a commercialization that has not just started, in contrast with other markets in which it is already a positioned product. The strategic use of the technologies should favor the commercialization of responsible trips, the expansion of the social movement, the introduction of habits of responsible consumption and the ethics of the leisure. For the travel agencies the responsible tourism represents a commercial approach; for the NGOs (Not Governmental Organizations) it is a tool of cooperation to construct social base. Some authors define it as a social movement. By means of the analysis one tries to know which are the pros and the cons that the responsible tourism offers as model of business and to manage to know if the travel agencies and the NGOs are influenced mutually. Across the quantitative methodology (descriptive statistics), there has been elaborated a database, a sample and a specific survey for every group of actors, with the aim to obtain information, depending on four hypotheses. Later the profiles of the actors have been analyzed, together with the hypotheses, to extract conclusions. As results, the general travel agencies are very interested in the responsible tourism, neither from the perspective of the social movement nor from that of the product. They are not also interested in implanting strategies of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In spite of it, the perception that stems from the benefits of the responsible tourism is good. The agents of trips are conscious that the experience that it generates obtains satisfaction indexes of the stay higher that in other modalities, it provides new experiences to the visitors and it generates benefits to the communities and local companies with a just exchange. The principal advantages are that the price factor is not important, it fidelizes the demand, the indexes of satisfaction are higher than the practices of traditional tourism, it improves the experience and the positioning of the company improves forehead the competition.