Dr Pablo Pereira-Doel
About
Biography
Dr Pablo Pereira-Doel is a lecturer in Hospitality Information Technology at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. He is also the Water literacy and sustainable water behaviour program lead at the Institute for Sustainability.
After several years in the hospitality/tourism industry in Spain, France, The Gambia, and the UK, he is now an applied social scientist who uses sustainability-oriented innovations, consumer nudging, persuasive communication, design thinking, and experimental research methods to create pro-environmental behaviour change. His consumer and industry testing research contributed to developing a smart water-saving technology to nudge users to take shorter showers.
Pablo's problem-solving transdisciplinary research has involved partnerships with several companies in the hospitality industry (e.g. Scandic, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, TUI, Hostelling International, and others) and beyond (e.g. Aguardio ApS, Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, L'Oréal, and the UN Environment Program).
His research has been funded through internal scholarships, an ESRC SeNSS Industry Engagement Fund, two ESRC Impact Acceleration Funds, a UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund, and an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship. Pablo is the first researcher in the UK to be awarded an ESRC postdoctoral fellowship in the hospitality/tourism field.
Areas of specialism
University roles and responsibilities
- Digital Lab lead
- FASS representative Open Research Working Group
News
In the media
ResearchResearch projects
Freshwater availability is under severe pressure, exacerbating alongside the ongoing climate crisis. This project, developed in close partnership with the industry, strengthens the business case for sustainability engagement and advances the sustainability agenda by developing interventions to optimise the effectiveness of combining innovative technology and behavioural change. The project delivers a positive impact by reducing the pressure on water and energy resources, reducing carbon emissions, and lowering utility costs.
Research projects
Freshwater availability is under severe pressure, exacerbating alongside the ongoing climate crisis. This project, developed in close partnership with the industry, strengthens the business case for sustainability engagement and advances the sustainability agenda by developing interventions to optimise the effectiveness of combining innovative technology and behavioural change. The project delivers a positive impact by reducing the pressure on water and energy resources, reducing carbon emissions, and lowering utility costs.
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
Safina Naz (University of Surrey). Pro-environmental behaviour with pleasure in hospitality: a positive psychology-based hedonic perspective. Co-supervision with Prof Xavier Font & Dr Marion Karl
Teaching
UNDERGRADUATE
- Digital innovation and data analytics
POSTGRADUATE
- Business analytics in services
- Designing digital hospitality services
- Experimental research methods
- Dissertation
Publications
The research builds for the first time on the boundaries between two sets of literature. First, the motivations of small tourism accommodation providers for acting sustainably. Secondly, how such providers should communicate sustainability to the market. This study examines the reasons why six small tourism accommodations engage in sustainability practices and how that is reflected on their websites. The study (1) exposes three motivations to act sustainably; (2) reflects on some of the challenges encountered when communicating sustainability; and (3) reflects on how the six businesses use persuasion communicating their sustainability practices. This paper highlights the importance of the message, which needs to be credible, customer-focused and persuasive to be effective. All three aspects score low in the businesses analysed, demonstrating a missed opportunity of using sustainability communications to enhance the quality of the product, improve the customer experience, secure marketing advantage and contribute to repeats and referrals.
Hotel guests’ behaviour is crucial to reduce water depletion, energy use and carbon emissions. In this covert field experiment we assessed the effectiveness of real-time feedback provided by smart water-saving technology in fostering hotel guests to shorten their showers. A 12,06% reduction in showering time (N=1,962) confirms that real-time feedback is effective in eliciting pro-environmental behaviour, even in hedonic contexts. Moreover, results suggest that even with no real-time feedback, the regular shower in a hotel may be shorter than at home. Tourism can be a force for good and the use of technology can shape pro-environmental behaviour among the public.
England is projected to face a water supply shortfall of 4 billion litres daily by 2050, mostly due to population growth and increasing climate-driven droughts and flooding. The Environment Act 2021 mandates significant water usage reductions, targeting a decrease for households from the current 144 litres per person/day to 110, and a 15% reduction for businesses. Enhancing water efficiency in showers is crucial, given their high water consumption, energy use and associated carbon emissions.
This study inductively applies the Feedback Intervention Theory by empirically demonstrating the effectiveness of continuous, real-time eco-feedback and its interaction with motivational factors in modifying showering behavior. We conducted a covert true experiment across six tourist accommodations in Denmark, Spain, and the UK, where we deployed smart technology, in the form of a timer to provide the eco-feedback, coupled with persuasive messages. Data from over 17,500 showers showed that continuous, real-time eco-feedback reduced water runtime by 25.79% (CI = 8.24%; 39.98%). When the eco-feedback was paired with the most effective message—priming pro-environmental values and requiring a high effort to comply—water runtime was reduced by 23.55% (CI = 17.53%; 29.13%). The study’s robust experimental design, and its emphasis on actual behavior measurement, highlight the potential of smart technology to facilitate resource conservation.