The effects of product transformation salience (PTS) on festival visitors’ recycling intentions: Do gender and age matter?

Abstract Festivals attract diverse visitors to tourism sites and contribute significant solid wastes every year. One way to help customers engage in recycling at tourist attractions is to adopt an effective communication tactic using product transformation salience (PTS). To better understand the influence of PTS, the current study investigated the roles of visitors’ characteristics, such as gender and age, by using PTS messages to promote recycling behavior by presenting moderation models. This study further examined the underlying psychological mechanisms to explain the effect of PTS on recycling intention by proposing a serial mediation model. The results indicated that the effects of PTS on visitors’ feedback toward green messages varied when considering visitors’ age and gender. In particular, women and older attendees perceive the higher green value of recycling and develop higher intentions toward engaging in recycling practices at events. The serial mediation effects of PTS → perceived green value → attitudes → intentions were also confirmed. The findings of this study contribute to the green advertising literature and provide practical suggestions to industry practitioners.