Millennial Tourists’ Environmentally Sustainable Behavior Towards a Natural Protected Area: An Integrative Framework

• Main Authors: Farzana Sharmin, Mohammad Tipu Sultan, Alina Badulescu, Dorin Paul Bac, Benqian Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-10-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: environmental sustainability awareness; environmentally sustainable behavior; millennial tourist; new ecological paradigm; natural protected area; value-belief-norm theory
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/20/8545

In the last few years, natural protected areas have been facing great challenges and degradation around the world. Among this, environmental sustainability has become a priority to create harmony between tourists and nature. Tourists visiting protected areas are becoming progressively more concerned regarding the environment. Moreover, the United Nations (UN) “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” have highlighted the potential role of young tourists to contribute to sustainable tourism. However, very few studies have focused on tourists’ environmentally sustainable behavior towards natural protected areas. To fill the existing gap in the literature, this study aims to provide a theoretical framework that includes environmental sustainability awareness (ESA) in measuring millennial tourists’ environmentally sustainable behavior (ESB). Thus, this study delivers an integrated approach based on the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory and the concept of the new ecological paradigm (NEP) towards protected areas. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted from one of the protected areas located in the north of Sichuan province of China, and 511 responses were obtained for statistical analysis. Results of the structural statistical analysis showed that the unified model includes a satisfactory level of predictive power for tourists’ ESB, which was superior to existing theories and concepts. The findings also revealed that all proposed relationships of the variables were significant and identified the positive influence of environmental sustainability awareness in generating the ESB. This study contributes towards sustainable tourism development and the conservation of protected areas, with several practical implications for local authorities in terms of millennial participation.