Assessing the Learning Effects of Host Communications on the Green Knowledge and Behavior of Festival Attendees—Evidence from Compulsory Garbage Sorting in China

Qi Yan, Huawen James Shen and Yunhong Hu
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Qi Yan: Tourism and Social Administration College, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Nanjing 211171, China
Huawen James Shen: School of International Tourism and Hotel Management, City University of Macau, Macau, China
Yunhong Hu: Landscape Architecture College, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: Compulsory waste sorting has been in practice in pilot cities in China and is expected to be fully implemented in urban areas of the country by 2025. However, the learning of compulsory waste sorting by non-local festival attendees in a semi-free choice festival context and the roles of the relevant factors require further investigation. In particular, for the non-local attendees, the festival context avails both the opportunity and occasion for effective learning of compulsory waste sorting, a unique research window worth further exploration. Employing a systematic modeling approach to comprehensively investigate the interrelationships among the identified significant factors, this study explores and examines the mechanism of this learning process with a hierarchy of positive relationships between the host communications, learning outcomes and behavioral intentions of the festival attendees concerning compulsory waste sorting. The research subject of this study was a branded forest music festival held in a waste-sorting pilot city in East China, which has long been pivoting to the promotion of environmental-friendly values. The objective measurement of the learning outcomes integrated by this study accentuate the effectiveness of the proposed structural model. Our research findings confirmed all of the hypothesized relationships and established positive learning outcomes for the festival attendees on waste sorting as instructed by the festival hosts. The role of the festival attendees’ environmental attitudes in mediating their learning outcomes was corroborated. This study advances the understanding of the experiential learning processes of pro-environment and sustainability knowledge and behavior in festival contexts, areas that require future research attention with growing reflections on and awareness of environmental protection and sustainable development.

Keywords: compulsory waste sorting; festival attendee learning; host communications; learning outcomes; environmental attitude (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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