Car Decals as a New Data Source for Self-Drive Tourists

Ralf Buckley and Claudia Ollenburg

Self drive domestic tourism is one of the largest subsectors of the tourism industry. According to the US Travel Association, 85% of overnight trips in the USA are self drive travel (Mandala 2011). In Australia, self-drive tourism is a major component of the large and often underestimated VFR travel subsector (Backer 2011). Self-drive travellers make up a major component in many economic valuations of recreational demand (Fleming and Cook 2008). Shifts between driving and other modes of transport may be a critical aspect of the interactions between tourism and climate change (Becken and Wilson 2007; Koo et al. 2010).

Keywords: car decals; self-drive tourist.