Tour guides’ interpretation and tourists’ pro-environmental behavior: differences across cultural and natural world heritage sites

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although tour guides’ role in encouraging pro-environmental behavior has been confirmed in the literature, little research has been undertaken to examine how world heritage site (WHS) type may influence the relationship between tour guides’ performance and tourists’ pro-environmental behavior. The difference between cultural world heritage and natural world heritage in terms of tourists’ behavior is under-explored. This research aims to assess the moderating effect of world heritage type (cultural and natural) on the relationship between tour guides’ performance and tourists’ pro-environmental behavior. A self-administrated survey was used for collecting data from two of the most famous natural and cultural WHSs: Petra Archeological Park in Jordan and Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. PLS-SEM was employed to conduct multi-group and path analysis. The results showed that world heritage type partially moderates the relationship between the performance of tour guides, tourists’ experience, satisfaction, and pro-environmental behavior. Managerial and theoretical implications and research directions are discussed.