No Planet-B Attitudes: The Main Driver of Gen Z Travelers’ Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Tourism Destinations

Arthur Filipe de Araújo (arthur.araujo@ulusofona.pt), Isabel Andrés-Marques and Lorenza López Moreno
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Arthur Filipe de Araújo: Intrepid Lab, Universidade Lusófona, Rua de Augusto Rosa 24, 4000-098 Porto, Portugal
Isabel Andrés-Marques: Intrepid Lab, Universidade Lusófona, Rua de Augusto Rosa 24, 4000-098 Porto, Portugal
Lorenza López Moreno: Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidade de Granada, Campus Universitario de Cartuja, 18071 Granada, Spain

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-23

Abstract: With consumers becoming increasingly aware of the effects of human activity on the environment, tourism products and destinations are increasingly marketed as sustainable and socially responsible. As most sustainable practices lead to additional costs, and tourists’ decisions tend to be price sensitive, achieving sustainability goals necessarily involves understanding how much more tourists are willing to pay for sustainable practices as well as the antecedents of such willingness to pay (WTP). The present study aims to advance knowledge on the antecedents of WTP for sustainable destinations (WTP-4-SD), for which it builds on previous studies employing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP). In this context, a theoretical model involving ecotourism attitudes, environmental beliefs, climate change-related risk perceptions (CC-RRP), environmental concern during trip (ECDT), and sustainable consumption behavior (SCB) as antecedents of WTP-4-SD is proposed. The model was tested based on data collected through an online survey from a sample of 847 Spanish and Portuguese Gen Z travelers and analyzed through Structural Equations Modeling (SEM). The findings suggest that a cohesive set of attitudes and beliefs regarding the man–nature relationship, the risks of climate change, and the role of tourism—which have been labeled “No Planet-B Attitudes”—is the main driver of WTP-4-SD. The effects of SCB and ECDT on WTP-4-SD have also been confirmed—although the latter is quite small—as well as those of No Planet-B Attitudes on both. The findings bring about insights into young travelers’ attitudes towards nature and the role of tourism in sustainable development, as well as useful implications for sustainable tourism planning and marketing.

Keywords: willingness to pay for sustainable destinations; environmental beliefs; ecotourism attitudes; sustainable consumption behavior; environmental concern; climate change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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