Towards a sustainable future: Analysing meta-competencies in community-based ecotourism on Liuqiu Island

Abstract

Sustainability is a major area of focus in modern tourism. Few studies have explored perceived sustainability from the perspective of tourists or discussed the three aspects of sustainability: the cultural, economic, and environmental aspects. Given the strong connection between tourism and education, contemporary scholars have emphasised the examination of sustainability meta-competencies. However, no study has examined the sustainability insights of tourists in actual tourism settings. Therefore, this study employed the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model to explore the hypothetical relationships between perceived sustainability, sustainability insights, and proenvironmental behaviour as perceived by tourists engaged in community-based ecotourism related to sea turtles. Responses to 394 questionnaires collected on Liuqiu Island in Taiwan were analysed. The results indicated positive relationships between tourists’ perceptions of economic sustainability, cultural sustainability, and sustainability insights, and a significant positive relationship was found between sustainability insights and proenvironmental behaviour. In addition, structural equation modelling revealed that sustainability insights mediated the effects of perceived economic sustainability and cultural sustainability on proenvironmental behaviour among tourists engaged in sea turtle ecotourism. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into wildlife-based tourism from an SOR perspective.