How sport tourism experience influences daily pro-environmental behaviour: the role of eco-friendly reputation and personal norm

Abstract

ABSTRACT Tourism destinations are often considered vulnerable to environmental destruction due to the negative environmental impact that can be generated by tourist activities. Unfortunately, tourists’ pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) has been considered problematic even in outdoor activity-related tourist destinations, despite the close connection between tourists and the environment. Hence, it is necessary to tackle: what are the psychological processes that govern tourists’ PEB? Drawing on multiple cognitive psychological theories, we examined how sport tourists’ experiences spill-over to their daily PEB. Data were collected among tourists who visited Shiga Kogen Mountain Resort in Japan (n = 178). While testing five hypotheses using the two-wave time-lagged data collection method, it revealed that eco-friendly reputation and personal norm have a significant effect on the destination PEB while also spills over positively to the daily PEB. Additionally, there was no significant mediation effect, however, the total effect was both significantly positive for eco-friendly reputation and personal norm. Overall, the current research can contribute to the literature on sustainable tourism by illuminating the relationships among environmental and personal factors in shaping tourists’ PEB and highlighting the potential long-term destination experiences.