Motivating Pro-Sustainable Behavior: The Potential of Green Events—A Case-Study from the Munich Streetlife Festival

Christina Tölkes,Elias Butzmann

doi:10.3390/su10103731

Abstract

Green events are staged to encourage visitors to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. The Munich Streetlife Festival (SLF) has such a sustainability focus reflected in an education program that aims to reach out to both sustainability-minded visitors and broader audiences. Therefore, this study examined the learning effects of the SLF’s education program regarding different visitor segments. We employed the transtheoretical model (TTM) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), to relate the learning outcomes to the visitors’ positioning in the stages of change model and visitor attitudes, subjective norms, and constraints. We conducted a visitor survey during the SLF in May 2015 and employed structural equation modelling to analyze the data. The motivational variable “learning about environmental protection” is positively correlated with pro-sustainable behaviors, whilst the variable “enjoying the event” shows a negative correlation. Our findings indicated that this event’s sustainability communication mainly appealed to sustainability-minded visitors in the action stage. Conscious visitors showed higher learning effects than visitors in the pre-contemplation stage, which was in line with the TTM’s propositions. This study enhanced our theoretical understanding of visitor behavioral change and supported green event managers in the development of target-group specific and more effective sustainability communications.

Highlights

The event sector is a fast-growing phenomenon that links tourism, leisure, and business [1,2]
Reference [7] defines the key elements of this event type as being the adoption of sustainability principles in the event’s management, the aim to reduce potential negative effects resulting from its staging, the consideration of financial objectives, and the intention to inform event attendees of sustainability issues and educate and motivate them toward sustainable behavioral change (e.g., Reference [6])
Green festivals show special sustainability features that are evident in the themes that run through the events’ entertainment and education program, its catering, the products and services provided, its decorations and designs, or the transportation services arranged for the event

Summary

Introduction

The event sector is a fast-growing phenomenon that links tourism, leisure, and business [1,2]. Green festivals show special sustainability features that are evident in the themes that run through the events’ entertainment and education program, its catering, the products and services provided, its decorations and designs, or the transportation services arranged for the event. These attributes are meant to reduce potential environmental damages associated with the staging of events (e.g., References [8,9,10]), and find ways of differentiation and image-building in relation to other festivals [2,11]

Objectives

Methods

Results