What Drives the Eco-Friendly Tourist Destination Choice? The Indian Perspective

Marek Nowacki, Yash Chawla and Joanna Kowalczyk-Anioł
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Marek Nowacki: Institute of Applied Sciences, WSB University in Poznań, 61-895 Poznań, Poland
Joanna Kowalczyk-Anioł: Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Institute of Urban Geography, Tourism Studies and Geoinformation, University of Łódź, 90-142 Łódź, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-16

Abstract: Although eco-friendly (pro-environmental) behaviour in tourism has attracted interest among practitioners and scholars, little is known about the influence of these attitudes on the choice of eco-friendly destinations, especially in the context of emerging tourist markets such as India. Thus, this article aims to verify a model of the relationships between attitudes towards the environment and eco-friendly tourism, social and personal norms regarding environmentally responsible behaviour, perceived behavioural control, behavioural intentions regarding eco-friendly destinations and the willingness to pay for such trips using the theory of planned behaviour. The study used an online survey conducted with 598 Indians. The relationships between the variables were analysed using PLS-PM. The most important results indicated that (1) there are significant relationships between the attitude towards the environment, the attitude towards an eco-friendly destination, social and personal norms and behavioural control and intentions regarding travelling to eco-destinations and (2) well-educated young Indian consumers expressed a positive attitude towards eco-friendly destinations; however, there was only a very weak relationship between this attitude and willingness to pay more for trips to them. These findings are valuable for pro-environmental planning and the growing green market/economy, as well as for the discussion on the future of pro-environmental tourism development.

Keywords: environmental awareness; intentions to pay a premium for travel; partial least squares path modelling; green destinations; tourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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