Tourist Environmentally Responsible Behavior and Satisfaction; Study on the World’s Longest Natural Sea Beach, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Md Sahabuddin,Qingmei Tan,Md Nekmahmud,Md Shariful Alam,Imran Hossain

doi:10.3390/su13169383

Abstract

This research was aimed at investigating the environmentally responsible behavior of tourists and their satisfaction with a tourist destination. Moreover, this study examined the effects of employee service quality, perceived value, environmental commitment and tourist satisfaction with a destination on loyalty and environmentally responsible behavior. We used data from tourists (n = 640) who had previously visited the world’s longest natural sea beach (Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh). A partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) method was used in this study to evaluate the proposed model and hypotheses. The results suggest that the perceived value of the destination has a significantly positive impact on both tourist satisfaction and environmental commitment. Similarly, employee service quality significantly impacts perceived value, tourist satisfaction and environmental commitment. Thus, both perceived value and employee service quality also substantially affect the environmentally responsible behavior at the Cox’s Bazar tourist destination. The main contribution of this research involved an investigation of the mediating effects of environmental commitment and tourist satisfaction with a destination on loyalty and environmentally responsible behavior using a single model based on relationship quality theory. Tourist satisfaction was found to completely mediate the relationship between the perceived value of a destination and environmentally responsible behavior, as well as loyalty. In addition, the theoretical and managerial implications for the destination were discussed.

Highlights

The environmental attitude of tourists is considered one of the most important factors influencing tourist destination’s perception, satisfaction, commitment to the environment, etc. [1,2,3]
The present study examines two dimensions of relationship quality, tourist satisfaction and environmental commitment, and considers tourist loyalty
This study investigates how perceived value and employee service quality influence Cox’s Bazar tourist satisfaction and environmentally responsible behavior

Summary

Introduction

The environmental attitude of tourists is considered one of the most important factors influencing tourist destination’s perception, satisfaction, commitment to the environment, etc. [1,2,3]. Environmental behavior is referred to as pro-environmental behavior and environmentally responsible behavior (ERB), describing a tourist’s behavior during travel that is beneficial to environmental protection and the wellbeing of tourist areas [4,5,6,7,8]. ERB impacts a tourist’s quality of life due to social involvement activities [9,10]. When visiting a scenic tourist spot, tourists must protect the natural ecological environment of the scenic area, maintain tangible tourism resources, and be responsible for the humanistic environment of the tourist spot to preserve and inherit the intangible nature of the scenic spot environment. Humanistic behaviors include not eating pre-packaged food, 4.0/).

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion