Nissi Beach Survey Results October 2012

Transcription

1 Nissi Beach Survey Results October

2 Background In 2010 the CTO, CSTI and Travel Foundation entered into a partnership agreement, to establish a programme of initiatives to support Cyprus in becoming a leader in sustainable tourism One of these programmes was to look at the feasibility of greening Cyprus s beaches. Since early 2012 many changes have been introduced to protect and enhance one of the islands most popular beaches - Nissi beach - and essentially green it The following survey sought to measure beach user attitudes, priorities, behaviours and levels of satisfaction on Nissi beach. It was carried out in October 2011 prior to the green beach changes and again in October 2012

3 Methodology o o o o Self-completion surveys were administered by volunteers between Wednesday 19 th September and Wednesday 3 rd October 2012 A total of n=281 surveys were completed All respondents were beach users on Nissi beach Surveys were available in four languages (Greek, English, German and Russian)

4 USER PROFILE & MOTIVATIONS 4

5 Beach user sample Nissi beach attracts a younger and less loyal crowd than Protaras. 54% of beach users were under 35 and half were firsttime visitors to Cyprus 49% First visit 21% Second visit 29% third visit or more Nationality classification / Q1 Gender / Q2 Age / Q3 Visitor type - Base n=281 (total sample)

6 Importance of beaches in decision to visit Cyprus 87% Important 2011 (%) (42) (37) (14) (6) Over four out of every five tourists on Nissi beach said the beaches were an important factor in their decision to visit Cyprus. A larger proportion of visitors than in 2011 (+11%), claimed they were a very important factor Q5 How important were the beaches in your decision to choose Cyprus as a holiday destination? - Base n=270 (all tourists)

7 Top qualitative reasons for choosing the beach o Location / proximity / close to hotel o Recommended / reputation / guide book o Lovely water / beautiful sea / clean sea / shallow water / great for swimming o Beautiful beach / good beach / best beach o Watersports o Bars o The staff - friendly / helpful o Atmosphere / surroundings o Friends here / meeting people here o Space / not cramped Very similar reasons were given for choosing Nissi beach in 2012 as in Nissi beach was considered a convenient beach by many users, it was perceived to have great water / sea and a good reputation (so was often recommended) Q7 Please list the top three reasons you chose to come this beach today - Base n=281 (total sample)

8 BEACH SATISFACTION 8

9 Overall satisfaction 2011 (%) (50) (44) This beach has got a blue flag, also the top of the beach is green. There are lots of new plants grown this year and the sea is very clean. The staff remove seaweed if necessary (5) (1) Although there are beautiful areas close to the Nissi beach hotel as you go further down the beach you notice the litter gets more dense and concentrated Overall satisfaction has improved year-on-year since the introduction of the green beach changes. 98% of people were satisfied with their visit to Nissi and a much larger 69% were now very satisfied (+19% on 2011 figures). Qualitatively some changes to the beach had been noticed Q9 Overall how satisfied have you been with your visit to the beach today? - Base n=281 (total sample)

10 Likelihood of recommending beach to a friend 2011 (%) (61) (32) (6) (1) 98% of people would now recommend Nissi to a friend with an even stronger conviction than 2011 figures, since the green beach changes were introduced. A more significant 77% of people would now be very likely to recommend the beach this year (up from 61% in 2011) Q13 How likely would you be to recommend this beach to a friend? - Base n=281 (total sample)

11 Satisfaction with specific elements top 10 +5% +17% +22% +16% +20% +16% +8% +14% +16% Fall No change Rise There were notable rises in beach user satisfaction for nine of the the top ten elements (bar watersports). The largest rises were for food & drink (+22% on 2011 figures - did this tally with the Nissi food event?) and for overall cleanliness (+20% on 2011 figures) Q10 Please indicate your level of satisfaction with specific elements - Base n=281 (total sample)

12 Satisfaction with specific elements bottom % +12% +13% +15% +12% +9% +10% Fall No change Rise There were also notable rises in beach user satisfaction across nearly all the remaining elements (excluding noise, volume of people and lifeguards). Vegetation / planting saw a particularly pronounced rise in satisfaction Q10 Please indicate your level of satisfaction with specific elements - Base n=281 (total sample)

13 Key factors negatively impacting enjoyment 2011 (%) (36) + 3% (17) - 6% (11) + 16% (8) + 3% (8) No change (6) + 3% (5) (3) (3) (2) (2) (1) (-) Despite increases in satisfaction and recommendation, the green beach changes are not eradicating some of the issues that can impact the user experience and the environment. Problems with cigarette butts remains stable and significantly more people were affected by algae this year. Positively, slightly fewer people were impacted by general litter though Q11 Please indicate whether any of the following has had a negative impact on your enjoyment today? - Base n=281 (total sample)

14 Litter audit info ON the beach - morning o 84 cigarette butts (no ashtrays observed), 18 plastic wrappers, 4 sweet wrappers, 4 bottle tops, 4 paper tissues, 3 sun lounger tickets, 3 pieces of foil IN the sea o Nothing observed ON the beach - evening o 40 cigarette butts (ashtrays observed), 16 paper tissues, 7 straws, 5 plastic bottles, 4 bottle tops, 3 plastic bags, 2 cans, 1 glass bottle IN the sea o 2 straws, 2 plastic bags While there was still a diverse array of litter items recorded on Nissi beach, there were far fewer items found IN the water than last year, notably no cigarette butts at all. There were still a significant volume of cigarette butts found on the beach but interestingly these reduced by the end of the day with the introduction of ash trays (while last year they increased hugely). Please note, the figures above relate to one small test area of the beach

15 ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS 15

16 Rating of environmental quality 2011 (%) (36) 96% good (55) (6) (1) Over 9 in 10 visitors to Nissi thought the environmental quality of the beach was good with an 18% increase in those who rated it as very good since the green beach changes were introduced Q8a Overall how would you rate the quality of the beach environment today? - Base n=281 (total sample) (1)

17 Transport to beach 2011 (%) (49) (16) (16) (10) (5) (3) (1) Many people visit Nissi as it is close to their hotel, so transport choices to the beach are already (circumstantially) quite sustainable; 48% visited on foot. Somewhat more people had visited by car this year. For a truly green beach, interventions still need to try and minimise the use of cars / quads / motorcycles Q6 How did you travel to the beach today? - Base n=281 (total sample)

18 Award awareness Do you know if this is an award beach 2012? Base: Total sample (281) What award/s do you think it has? Base: All those who think it is an award beach (n=100) + 12% - 2% Do you know if this is an award beach 2011? Base: Total sample (156) Did this affect your decision to come to the beach today? Base: All those who think it is an award beach (n=100) - 3% Over a third of people knew Nissi beach was an award beach (an increase on 2011 figures) - while the majority of these knew it was a Blue Flag beach, an additional 12% correctly identified Nissi as a green beach. No more people were motivated by the award status Q14a / Q14b / Q14c

19 Considered impact on the environment today 2011 (%) (23) (19) (25) (17) (17) The consideration of environmental impacts was still mixed on Nissi beach. Despite small increases in those who had considered their impacts, figures are broadly unchanged from 2011, although promisingly over one in four visitors (27%) considered their impact a lot Q15a How much have you considered your impact on the environment whilst at the beach today? - Base n=281 (total sample)

20 Impacts considered Litter and common courtesy to the environment Don t leave litter on the beach. People are always cleaning up The litter and making sure I didn t trample the vegetation Take all my rubbish away with me and dispose of it in the hotel Not leaving rubbish and picking up other rubbish I recycled all my rubbish I try to recycle and clear up after myself. It is hard to recycle, there are a lot more normal waste bins Ensure we dispose of litter in an environmentally friendly manner Not dropping rubbish and making sure I am not too loud when talking I got the bus here Recycled plastic bottles I don t litter and I always use the ash trays provided Recycling and cigarette butts Not bringing too much stuff to the beach and disposing of litter properly Waste disposal is the most salient current concern and this manifests itself in a number of ways; not bringing excess stuff to the beach environment, not littering, recycling, taking litter back to hotels/apartments and cleaning up after others Q15b What impacts have you considered?

21 Green behaviours regularly undertaken at home 2011 (%) (59) (47) (47) (38) (13) (17) (9) (2) (18) There were significant rises across the board in the number of people carrying out different proenvironmental behaviours at home (bar ethical food), suggesting many of these behaviours are becoming more mainstream and habitual Q17 Which of the following, if any, do you regularly do at home? - Base n=281 (total sample)

22 GREEN BEACH OPPORTUNITIES 22

23 Perceptions of greenness of beach 2011 (%) (8) (53) (22) (1) (16) There was much more conviction about the greenness of Nissi beach this year with rises in the number of people stating the beach was both very and quite green and falls in the other categories. The majority still believed the beach was quite green so more improvements can still be made Q16 How green / eco / sustainably managed do you think this beach is? - Base n=281 (total sample)

24 Attitudes towards green beach changes +38% +17% +13% +19% +12% +14% +10% +6% +14% +10% Other beaches I have been to have much stricter policies on litter and cigarettes Fall No change Rise There is significantly more support for the introduction of nearly all the green beach interventions this year, perhaps due to the higher environmental consciousness of the sample. There was a particularly notable rise in support for a prominent recycling point. These greater levels of conviction show it is possible to be even braver with changes to the beach environment to protect it and truly eradicate issues - three in every five beach users for example thought a litter fine would be an excellent idea Q18 Please let us know your feeling towards the following potential changes - Base n=281 (total sample)

25 Summary and Conclusions o o o o o o o o There have been significant improvements in overall user satisfaction with Nissi beach and the likelihood of its recommendation, since the introduction of the green beach changes in 2012 Nearly all specific elements have also seen year-on-year improvements with particularly pronounced rises for the categories of food and drink, overall cleanliness and vegetation & planting The rating of Nissi s environmental quality has also seen a marked improvement as well as its perceived greenness. Further, an additional 12% of beach users correctly identified the beach as a green beach Despite improvements in satisfaction and environmental quality, the green beach changes have not been eradicating issues that can impact the user experience and the environment Cigarette butts, in particular, were still a pronounced problem and algae was a much bigger issue this year There are still many opportunities to truly green the beaches. Many green behaviours are becoming so deeply embedded / habitual in people s day-to-day lives beach users should be given the maximum opportunity to carry them out effectively in the beach environment too (e.g. recycling) Further, there is significantly more support for the introduction of nearly all the suggested green beach interventions. These greater levels of conviction show it is possible to be even braver with changes to the beach environment to protect it and truly eradicate the issues (be it though litter fines or widespread non-smoking zones), without reducing visitor satisfaction Overall a great start to the greening Cyprus beaches programme!

26 Nissi Beach Survey Results October