Understanding pro-environmental behavior in tourism: Developing an experimental model

Abstract

Reducing tourism-related damage to the destination environment and enhancing tourists' pro-environmental behavior are important for tourist destinations. As an important factor in consumers' pro-environmental behaviors (PEB), the emotion of awe has attracted increasing attention in tourism research. This study investigates the relationship between tourists' experience of awe and their pro-environmental behavioral intentions (measured by high and low effort PEB) (Study 1, 2), as well as their actual PEB (measured by charitable donation) (Study 3), and how this relationship is mediated (moderated) by connectedness to nature (tourist destination) in China. The results demonstrated a positive correlation between awe, connectedness to nature, and pro-environmental behavioral intention (Study 1). Connectedness to nature mediates the relationship between awe experience and pro-environmental behavioral intention (Study 2). Meanwhile, tourists report different feelings of awe and pro-environmental behavior for different types of tourism destinations. Specifically, the indirect impact of awe experience in religious scenic spots on tourists’ pro-environmental behavior was greater than that in natural scenic spots (Study 3). Finally, the comprehensive framework developed here can be implemented by destination managers and tourism operators to improve the competitiveness of the Chinese tourist destinations.