Tourists’ Littering Behavior and Feeling of Guilt: Implications for Sustainable Coastal Destination Management

Abstract

Though tourists have long been acknowledged to litter beaches during their holidays, there is little empirical focus on understanding the characteristics of tourists who litter beaches. Based on data obtained from 843 international tourists who visited two main coastal destinations in Ghana and analyzed with binary logistic regression and chi-square test of independence, it is revealed that close to half of the tourists admitted to littering beaches during their holiday in Ghana. Further, male tourists, younger adults, high school leavers, those who traveled to Ghana in the company of others, as well as those who visited for the purpose of leisure have the highest probability of littering beaches. Among those who littered, females, older adults, bachelors and postgraduate qualification holders, and those who visited for the sake of seeing friends and family and business felt guilty for their littering behavior. The implications of these findings in the context of promoting sustainable tourist behavior at coastal destinations are discussed.