Triggers for Change Realising a 'Design for Sustainable Behaviour' Web-Tool for influencing Sustainable Tourism in Cornwall

Tourism in Cornwall represents over 24% of Cornwall's annual GDP. It is "the county's largest single industry", providing work for one in five Cornish inhabitants, and is responsible for almost a quarter of the money the county makes each year (Objective One, 2001, p. 10). However, in its current form, this vibrant but carbon-intensive business sector does not contribute to low-carbon development in Cornwall. It remains un-sustainable in a number of environmental, social and economic ways (Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project, 2011a; 2014b). Thus, there isa recognized need for "sustainable tourism" (Butler, 1999), also defined as "ethical and responsible tourism" (Goodwin et al, 2003), due to the global growth of tourism and its various damaging by-products.

According to Moscardo (1996) and Pearce (2005), one of the most effective ways to achieve sustainability in tourism is by influencing the behaviour and attitudes of visitors and tourism operators. Therefore, distinguishing Tourism as a form of consumption, this research project studies tourists as consumers, and aims at encouraging sustainable consumption in order to promote sustainable tourism in Cornwall.

Since human behaviour, not technology, lies at the heart of sustainable consumption, this project addresses the challenge of promoting sustainable tourism from a behavioural point of view, not a technical one; understanding and influencing the behaviour of tourists visiting Cornwall towards more environmentally and socially friendly patterns. More specifically, due to the fact that sustainable consumption requires sustainable behaviour not just at the 'point-of-sale' but most importantly during the 'use-phase' of a product/service/system's lifecycle (Pettersen and Boks, 2008, p.119), this project focuses on influencing C02-related Human-Artefact interactions within the context of Cornish accommodation-provision industry, the second largest sector of Tourism that contributes to C02 emissions and climate change (Cohen et al, 2014).

In the contemporary framework of sustainable design, many authors argue for the importance of design as a powerful means of furthering behaviour change towards more sustainable practices (Lilley, 2009; Thackara, 2005; Walker, 2006; Bhamra et al. 2008). Thus, this research project addresses social and environmental issues as they pertain to Tourism and aims to demonstrate the importance of Sustainable Design as a medium to change touristic behaviour, lessen its impact and support sustainability in Tourism. As original design research, this thesis draws upon a multi-disciplinary literature review, including the emerging field of 'Design for Sustainable Behaviour' (DfSB), Behavioural Economics (Dolan et al's 'MINDSPACE model'), Environmental and Social Psychology, Social Science (Cialdini's 'Six Universal Laws of Influence'), and Community-based Social Marketing, bringing together their developed understandings on what it takes to communicate and influence human behaviour, along with illustrated examples, into a comprehensive chart called "Elements of Persuasion".

In turn, "Elements of Persuasion" creates the basis upon which new knowledge is consolidated in the form of a webtool called "Triggers for Change"; a digital platform, developed and evaluated through an iterative Human-Centred Design process, that aims to become an online resource framework for the Cornish tourism industry, that improves the persuasiveness of their sustainability communications with tourists visiting Cornwall. This would therefore minimise the industry's contribution to C02 emissions and climate change and, thus, further Sustainable Tourism in Cornwall