What influences water conservation and towel reuse practices of hotel guests?

Abstract

Understanding guests' water conservation and towel reuse behaviors is essential as sustainability is recently a vital issue in the hotel industry. Yet, guests' decision formation for such pro-environmental behaviors has not been sufficiently explored. This research filled such a void in the extant literature. Our empirical findings showed that guests' water conservation intention was a significant function of moral norm, anticipated feelings, and water saving behavior in everyday life. Our results also indicated that guests' towel reuse intention was significantly affected by moral norm, social norms, anticipated feelings, and towel reuse behavior in everyday life. Moreover, moral norm and descriptive norm were found to be the most influential factors determining water conservation and towel reuse intentions, respectively. This research adds to the extant literature in hospitality/tourism by providing valuable insights into how normative, affective, and habitual processes relate to guests’ pro-environmental decisions during their stay at a hotel.