Sustainable Tourism: The Moderating Effect of Tourists’ Educational Background in the Relationship Between Green Practices and Customer Satisfaction

Zainudin Awang,Asyraf Afthanorhan,Y Yusnita

doi:10.14419/ijet.v7i4.34.23574

Abstract

The tourism industry is one of the largest and fastest growing economic sectors in the world and has contributed to world economic growth. Since the tourism industry is among those directly related to the environment, green tourism has an important role in the environment management system, especially practices that have the ability to reduce negative impacts onto the environment. Green initiatives are considered part of the programs adopted in many parts of the tourism sector. This article examines the influence of green practices and a green image towards customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. To test the theoretical framework, some 385 data were analysed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Results revealed that green practices have stronger effects on customer satisfaction compared to a green image. The moderation test indicated that tourists’ educational background moderates the relationship between green practices and customer satisfaction, where the effect among tourists with a high education level is higher compared to those with a low education level. Further analysis showed that green practices and a green image lead to customer loyalty indirectly through customer satisfaction. The results present many implications towards theory and practice as far as the tourism industry is concerned.

Highlights

Over the past six decades, the tourism industry has been one of the largest and fastest growing economic sectors in the world, contributing to world economic growth [1, 2]
The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) results revealed that the Green Practice construct has four dimensions, while the Green Image, Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty constructs all have two dimensions each
The empirical findings from this study revealed that green practice and green image have significant effects on customer satisfaction and that customer satisfaction has an impact on customer loyalty

Summary

Introduction

Over the past six decades, the tourism industry has been one of the largest and fastest growing economic sectors in the world, contributing to world economic growth [1, 2]. The tourism industry is directly related to the environment. Society is becoming more concerned about environmental issues, such as global warming, ozone depletion and habitat destruction. A majority of people nowadays realise that the decision to purchase goods and services will directly affect the environment. There is an increasing number of customers who take into consideration various environmental issues when purchasing goods, and have started looking for alternatives such as environmentally friendly products, even if it means having to pay more for these products [7]

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Conclusion