Explanatory or Dispositional Optimism: Which Trait Predicts Eco-Friendly Tourist Behavior?

Farrukh Rafiq,Syed Khusro Chishty,Mohd Adil

doi:10.3390/su14052994

Farrukh Rafiq, Syed Khusro Chishty + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052994

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Abstract

Recently, researchers have been drawn to the literature surrounding positive psychology. The role of explanatory and dispositional optimism in eco-friendly tourism has been largely ignored by researchers, even though positive psychology, or optimism, has been studied in the sustainability domain. The purpose of this study is to determine which trait predicts eco-friendly tourist behavior. In the study, the data were collected online using Amazon Mechanical Turk from 400 respondents, and the model was assessed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings revealed that in terms of predicting eco-friendly tourism behavior, dispositional optimism outperformed explanatory optimism. Furthermore, this study found that environmental concern positively moderates the association between optimism (dispositional and explanatory) and eco-friendly tourism behavior. This study has wide-ranging implications for tourism managers, practitioners, and academics.

Highlights

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization [1], approximately one billion tourists travel abroad each year, contributing 10% and 6% to global GDP and total exports, respectively
The current study proposes two research questions: (RQ1) Do personality traits influence tourists to display eco-friendly behavior? (RQ2) Does environmental concern moderates tourists’ personality traits and eco-friendly behavior link? To address these research questions, this study aims to fill the gap in the literature in the following ways: First, based on the primary data, this study investigates the relationship between dispositional optimism, explanatory optimism, and eco-friendly tourist behavior
In order to test the association between the employed variables—dispositional optimism, explanatory optimism, and eco-friendly tourist behavior (Table 3)—we conducted Pearson’s correlation analysis for weak (r = 0.145 **) association between dispositional optimism and explanatory optimism, indicating that both optimisms are similar yet largely different [32]

Summary

Introduction

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization [1], approximately one billion tourists travel abroad each year, contributing 10% and 6% to global GDP and total exports, respectively. Studying eco-friendly behavior within the ambit of tourism is critical as this industry exhibits negative spillover effect over the environment, the society, and the economy. Environmental degradation has resulted in the development of the “sustainable development concept” that encourages individuals to practice eco-friendly behavior in order to conserve the environment [3]. A reduction in ethical behavior among tourists at the destination has been documented in the extant literature [6–8]. It is possible to attribute the lack of consensus in the literature to individual and situational factors that can influence individuals’ ethical behavior, for instance—personal values, attitude, perceived behavioral control, social norms, personality traits, knowledge, moral obligations, and infrastructure availability [9–14]. Studies in the area of tourism consumption accentuated environmental behavior, performed by eco-tourists [15]

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