Do Green Attributes of Destination Matter? The Effect on Green Trust and Destination Brand Equity

Abstract

Tourism industry is a part of an important sector that contributes to the economic development of any country in an effective way such that the tourism stakeholders are taking efforts to develop sustainable tourism practices in order to preserve the future generation needs and hold their perception towards environment. Extant research on environmentally sustainable practices has treated "Green" tourism as local environmental awareness and conservative activities, failing to identify the differences in the way tourists choose destinations based on green attributes and how these attributes effect the destination marketing. This study addresses this gap by exploring the relationship among attributes of green tourism and green trust and their impact on destination brand equity. Moreover, an important variable, greenwashing, is used to measure the moderation effects in the relationships proposed. Analysis was based on a sample of 739 Indian tourists having visited three eco-friendly destinations. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique exhibited the impact of green service attributes (green service delivery and green service support except green service policy) on green trust with significant moderation interaction effects from greenwashing and finally the consequent effect on destination brand equity.