Doing the right thing: How to persuade travelers to adopt pro-environmental behaviors? An elaboration likelihood model perspective

Abstract

This study adopts the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to explore the interplay between central route factors and peripheral route factors in influencing pro-environmental behaviors among tourists. Place attachment is introduced as a moderator influencing the relationship between tourists' attitudes and behaviors. Utilizing designed scenarios, the study gathered 728 valid questionnaires to assess the effects of informational characteristics on tourists' information perception and subsequent behavioral responses. The findings underscore the pivotal roles played by the environmental (social) cues, attributes of pro-environmental behaviors as well as image appeal in boosting the perceived informativeness and diagnosticity of the information, which significantly shape tourists' attitudes and behavioral intentions. Moreover, the research discloses that the extent to which attitude affects pro-environmental behavior is contingent upon the tourists' level of place attachment to the destination.