An environmental social marketing intervention in cultural heritage tourism: a realist evaluation

CITATION

Gregory-Smith, D., Wells, V., Manika, D., & Mcelroy, D. (2017). An environmental social marketing intervention in cultural heritage tourism: a realist evaluation. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(7), 1042–1059

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ABSTRACT
Following Pawson and Tilley’s principles of realist evaluation and the
context–mechanism–outcome (CMO) framework, this paper conducts a
process evaluation of an environmental social marketing intervention in a
heritage tourism organisation. Social marketing and employee
environmental interventions have received relatively scant attention in
tourism. Additionally, prior literature mostly focused on the evaluation of
intervention outcomes (i.e. how far the intervention produces precise
targeted outcomes) and ignores the importance of process evaluation (i.e.
identifying what works, for whom, under which circumstances and how,
plus issues of intervention maintenance). This paper fills this literature gap
using realist evaluation theory and academic perspectives, as well as via
the reflections of practitioners involved in intervention design and
delivery. Findings suggest that a good understanding of the tourism and
organisational context (regarding the dimensions of structure, culture,
agency and relations) and the use of tailored, action-focused mechanisms
(for each context dimension) are critical to achieving transformational
outcomes in environmental interventions in cultural heritage
organisations. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the CMO is a
useful framework for assessing environmental social marketing
interventions in tourism (both for heritage and other tourism
organisations). Implications for tourism practice and further research
directions are also discussed.


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