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Abstract |
The tourism sector is impacted by megatrends such as increased availability of high-tech equipment, information and communication technology (ICT) and the sharing economy (SE) (Elmahdy et al. 2017). High-tech equipment and clothing provide tourists with increased comfort and safety. The ICT enables online booking and digital communication and in recent years, digital platforms have enabled sharing of underutilized assets with strangers. These global trends expect to affect the demand for nature-based tourism experiences, and the way people engage with nature (Fredman & Margaryan 2020, p. 6). A part of the nature-based tourism (NBT) sector is equipment-intensive, with activity-adapted development of specialized equipment and clothing (e.g., Randonnée, kiting, kayaking). The equipment is often expensive and underutilized. One of the key themes in the NBT literature is to understand the role of NBT in the context of global transformations as (among others) the SE (Elmahdy et al. 2017; Fredman & Margaryan 2020). The SE includes a broad set of activities and concepts, from Airbnb and Uber to companies enabling temporary transactions of assets, often labelled access-based consumption (Eckhardt & Bardhi 2015) or on-demand renters (Trabucchi et al. 2019). The focus in access-based consumption, is to gain access to goods or services for a limited period without acquiring ownership (Eckhardt & Bardhi 2015). Moreover, on-demand renters are characterized by companies which enable a temporary transaction of new assets (Trabucchi et al. 2019, p. 1007). These approaches present an innovative version of the traditional renting business model where the companies provide a platform that offers direct access to shared assets (B2C, C2C), without any human intermediaries (Trabucchi et al. 2019). The literature on SE is growing but has a strong bias towards cities and metropolitan regions. More knowledge is needed about the development of the SE in peripheral areas (Agarwal & Steinmetz 2019). With this backdrop there is a need for more knowledge about what people are willing to share and with whom, and how the use of technology can affect the NBT experiences. Findings from Iversen and Hem (2018) and Fredman & Margaryan (2020) underpin these knowledge gaps. To fill these gaps, the purpose of this article is to investigate attitudes towards sharing of gear (including clothes) among tourists doing NBT in Norway, aiming to increase our knowledge about NBT in the context of sharing economy and to contribute to the knowledge gap about sharing economy in general and in peripheral areas in particular. |
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