Do tourists notice social responsibility information?

This empirical study explores the amount of attention tourists pay to social responsibility (environment and community) information when booking accommodation online. Visual attention is a necessary requirement for tourists to consider the social responsibility of different accommodation options when making bookings. Eye tracking methodology was used to measure the visual attention paid to social responsibility initiatives in a simulated accommodation booking webpage. Results reveal that information about social responsibility initiatives does not attract significant visual attention from tourists, especially when they are confronted with a typically large amount of information about accommodation options. Such information is therefore unlikely to affect booking decisions. Accommodation providers can actively direct tourists' attention to social responsibility initiatives by reducing the total amount of information provided.