Abstract
Nature-based tourism destinations—locations in which economic viability and environmental responsibility are sought—are sensitive to climate change and its effects on important environmental components of the tourism areas. To meet the dual roles, it is important for destination marketers and resources managers to provide quality experiences for tourists and to induce tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior in such destinations. This study documents the importance of perceptions toward climate change and tourist experiences in determining tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior while enjoying holidays at nature-based tourism destinations in Jeju Island, South Korea. Two hundred and eleven Korean and 204 Chinese tourists marked dominant tourist arrivals to the island, and responded to the survey questionnaire. Results showed that perceptions toward climate change and tourist experiences affect Korean tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior intentions, whereas tourist experiences—not perceptions toward climate change—only significantly affect Chinese tourists’ behavior intention. In a nature-based tourism context under the pressure of climate change and adverse environmental effects as consequences of tourism activities, resources managers and destination marketers need to develop environmental campaigns or informative tourist programs to formulate environmentally responsible behavior as well as to increase tourist quality experiences among domestic and international tourists.
Highlights
Global societies have been acknowledging the issues surrounding climate change and CO2 emissions, and have developed international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change [1]
The regression analysis combining Korean and Chinese tourists reveals that three determinants—i.e., moral responsibility for climate change, perceived value, and satisfaction—are statistically significant in inducing the environmentally responsible behavior intention; awareness of climate change does not have an impact on the behavioral intention
Notwithstanding the theoretical and practical contributions towards better understanding the relationships between climate change, tourist experiences, and tourists' environmentally responsible behaviors, this study has limitations which researchers should consider when evaluating the study’s findings
Summary
Global societies have been acknowledging the issues surrounding climate change and CO2 emissions, and have developed international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change [1]. There have been discussions about the role of tourism as a net contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, and the UNTWO Davos Declaration encourages tourists to reduce their carbon footprints or offset their emissions, and to opt for environmentally friendly activities that contribute to the preservation of the natural environment and consider the economic, societal and environmental impacts of their travel behavior [4]. Tourists are aware of climate change, they would not be willing to change their behavior through reducing air travel, among other ways, to reduce their personal carbon footprint [5,6]. We can assume that when tourists become more aware of and concerned about climate change or its impacts, they are more likely to behave in environmentally responsible ways. Researchers have held ongoing discussions on the associations between perceptions toward climate change and environmentally responsible behavior, but the effects of perceptions toward climate change on tourists and environmental behavior are not yet conclusive
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