How do tourism activities and induced awe affect tourists’ pro-environmental behavior?

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Tourism Management

Volume

106

Publisher

Elsevier

School

School of Business and Law

Funders

National Natural Science Foundation of China / Humanities and Social Sciences Youth Fund / Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation

Grant Number

72202061, 72174213, 71974206, 22YJCZH050, 2024JJ3034

Comments

Su, L., Li, M., Wen, J., & He, X. (2025). How do tourism activities and induced awe affect tourists’ pro-environmental behavior?. Tourism Management, 106, 105002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2024.105002

Abstract

With environmental protection gaining traction, prompting tourists to undertake pro-environmental behavior via self-guidance (vs. compliance with rules) merits attention. This research explored how different tourism activities influence tourists' pro-environmental behaviors by arousing distinctive emotions and cognition. Six scenario-based experiments revealed that unthreatened awe and threatened awe can each promote such behaviors. Relaxing tourism activities promote pro-environmental behaviors by awakening a stronger sense of unthreatened awe and self-enhancement; challenging tourism activities foster these behaviors by invoking a greater sense of threatened awe and self-protection. In addition, when a tourist's sense of power is high, a relaxing tourism activity path plays a role: it positively influences pro-environmental behavior through unthreatened awe and self-enhancement. Conversely, when a tourist's sense of power is low, a challenging tourism activity path is pertinent: threatened awe and self-protection act as serial mediators. These findings provide theoretical insights for destination managers to improve locations' environments.

DOI

10.1016/j.tourman.2024.105002

Access Rights

free-to_read

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