From recreation to responsibility: Increasing environmentally responsible behavior in tourism

Abstract

Environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) matters a great deal for the long-term success of tourist destinations. Building upon the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, the current study constructed an integrated model to demonstrate perceived destination eco-friendly reputation as a stimulus; consumption emotions (positive and negative) as organism; tourism satisfaction, recollection, tourist environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) as response. Notably, tourists' recollection is seen within this S-O-R framework as the formation mechanism for prescribed action and consequently as an example of script theory and the generation of consumer responses, thus connecting elements of behavioral and cognitive psychology in a unified framework. Survey data from 522 Chinese tourists were used to empirically examine the integrated tourist ERB model. The findings suggest that destination eco-friendly reputation positively impacts both positive emotions and tourist satisfaction, and eco-friendly reputation negatively impacts negative emotions. Positive emotions significantly and positively influence tourist satisfaction, tourists' recollection, and ERB. Conversely, negative emotions have a significant negative effect on these constructs. Moreover, tourist satisfaction positively influences recollection and ERB, and recollection in turn positively affects ERB. Theoretical insights and practical implications are discussed in this paper.