| Author: | Gamor, Emmanuel |
| Title: | Drivers of tourists' sustainable behavior : an investigation of multilevel goal framing approach |
| Advisors: | Hon, H. Y. Alice (SHTM) Law, Rob (SHTM) |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2022 |
| Subject: | Tourists -- Psychology Tourism -- Environmental aspects Sustainable tourism Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xix, 332 pages : illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Governments, industry players, and academic researchers have gained interest in the tourism industry's contribution to sustainability in the wake of intensified advocacy for the sustainable use of available resources. The pillars of sustainability form part of an essential focus of global discussions, with environmental sustainability leading the discourse. Over the past two decades, the hospitality and tourism industry has paid attention to sustainable tourism development. A vibrant quest to attain sustainability has contributed significantly to innovative ideas that conserve resources and reduce production costs and service delivery. These efforts have focused on the supply side, leaving the demand side with limited attention. With emerging literature highlighting the pivotal role tourists play in the sustainability agenda, tourists' preferences and choice behavior are fundamental to the sustainability of the environment, society, and economy. Though behavior is essential, drivers of sustainable behavior among tourists have gained little attention. Studies on factors influencing tourists' behavior focus on tourists' psychological and personal characteristics. Given that the external environment can influence the behavior of a tourist, psychology and economics researchers recently posited that social and country-level factors influence how individuals behave. However, they are often left out of the picture, creating a vacuum in the theoretical and empirical discussions on behavioral predictors among tourists. Therefore, there is a need to consider these factors to generate a holistic understanding of the sustainable behavioral predictors of tourists. Recent studies on factors influencing tourists' sustainable behavior have explored the phenomenon from a single-level perspective, ignoring the multilevel nature of the factors. Global changes, including COVID-19, have changed the decision-making and behavior of tourists globally. The pandemic anxiety can potentially influence goal formation and behavioral tendencies during travel in the post-COVID-19 era. Goals that drive tourists to pursue particular behavior can give vital information that can help understand and design environments to prime tourists to behave sustainably. Therefore, a nested approach needs to be adopted to understand the multilevel factors that influence the sustainable behavior of tourists through goal orientation. The current study addresses these gaps by investigating tourists' sustainable behavior drivers. Four research objectives were formed to realize the aim of the study. (1) To determine sustainable behavior among international leisure tourists. (2) To investigate how multilevel factors relate to the tourists' sustainable behavior. (3) To examine the mediating effect of goal frame orientation on the predictors-sustainable behavior relationships. (4) To examine the influence of COVID-19 anxiety on future sustainable behavioral intentions. A comprehensive review of relevant literature informed the adoption of theory, the development of a framework for the study, and the questionnaire design. Consequently, the Goal Framing Theory guided the framework. After the pre-test and pilot test of the questionnaire, the final instrument was translated into Chinese (Mandarin) and used to collect data from residents of Mainland China, the USA, and the UK through the online panel of Dynata. Data from 1020 questionnaires from residents of 34 provinces/states/counties across the three countries were analyzed after data cleaning. This thesis used descriptive statistics, ANOVA, CFA, regression, and multilevel modeling (MLM) to examine the data. Guided by the Goal framing Theory, the results show that international leisure tourists are somewhat sustainable in their behavior at destinations, indicating the possibility of improvement in sustainability among tourists. Multiple domain factors influence the sustainable behavior of international leisure tourists, revealing that multilevel factors influence tourists' sustainable behavior. Interestingly, gender, education, employment status, information from mobile technology platforms, and recommendations do not significantly influence tourists' sustainable behavior. In addition, the affluence of the origin inversely impacts sustainable behavior. However, self-efficacy and social pressure are the most decisive influential factors. Goal orientation plays a vital role in sustainable behavior formation. Furthermore, while the hedonic goal strongly affects behavior and relationships with the predictors, the normative goal exhibits weak effects. The anxiety about travel due to COVID-19 negatively affects future sustainable behavioral intentions; thus, it needs attention toward future tourism management. The unique contribution of this thesis to theory is that it establishes, with empirical evidence, that multilevel drivers influence sustainable behavior among tourists. Goal orientation also plays a vital role in sustainable behavior formation. It extends the understanding of drivers of sustainable behavior in tourism. Practically, the study suggests that using strategies that reward tourists, such as gamification, will improve sustainable behavior. Again, enhancing policies and proper communication will improve behavior. Marketing of destinations should incorporate travel anxiety reduction strategies. This assurance will help reduce anxiety during travel in the post-COVID-19 era and, by extension, improve sustainable behavioral intentions and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
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