How eco-certificate/effort influences hotel preference

Abstract

Pro-environmental accommodation options (e.g., hotels) are integral to sustainable tourism development. However, little is known about how the presentation of eco-information influences tourists' decisions. Across five studies that deployed mixed methods, we find that two types of information presentation for eco-hotels (outcome: eco-certificates vs. process: eco-efforts) and tourists' cognitive decision habits (entity vs. incremental) interactively influence the evaluation of eco-hotels. More specifically, those with entity (vs. incremental) decision habits would prefer a pro-environmental hotel that is described in terms of eco-certificates (vs. eco-efforts). Furthermore, we show that the perceived difficulty associated with the attainment of the eco-certificates moderates the influence of eco-information on pro-environmental hotel preference for those with incremental decision habits. The results of this research suggest that hotels may target their pro-environmental features (eco-certificates vs. eco-efforts) to different market segments (e.g., age, solo/group travel, and culture) to increase evaluation and preference.