Balance between tourism and environment: measuring tourists' implicit and explicit attitudes toward visual conservation messages. The genuine article

Abstract

Visual messages are widely used to positively influence in conservation attitudes of visitors in tourist destinations, these are usually persuasive or prohibitive. According to the literature, attitudes are classified as explicit (conscious) or implicit (beyond conscious control) and there may be differences between them towards the same attitude object. This paper aim to presents the analysis of said attitudes towards prohibitive and persuasive visual messages focused on the correct disposal of garbage in a tourist attraction. A structured questionnaire was used for explicit measurement and the Implicit Association Test for implicit measurement, these were applied in two sun and beach destinations in the Mexican Caribbean. After the tests carried out, it is established that both messages (persuasive and prohibitive) are effective at an explicit level; however, at an implicit level, the persuasive message produces more favorable attitudes, thus is a better opportunity to positively influence conservationist attitudes.