Assessment bias of environmental quality (AEQ), consideration of future consequences (CFC), and environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) in tourism

Abstract

Optimism bias in the environmental field and its effects on environmental behaviors have not been well investigated to date. This study examines if temporal and spatial biases exist when tourists assess the environment’s current and projected quality of (1) their residential places, (2) their travel destinations, and (3) a country overall. Thereafter, we examined the effects of assessment bias and consideration of future consequences on tourists’ environmental behaviors (including behaviors in destinations and general behaviors). In a sample of Chinese domestic tourists, temporal optimism was dominant in their assessment of the future environmental quality for all three spatial areas, above. Spatial optimism was found when comparing residential places and destinations to the whole country, but spatial pessimism was found when comparing residential places to destinations. Assessment bias was not associated with the environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) of tourists. However, the consideration of future consequences and absolute environmental quality assessment did have a significant influence on their ERB. Furthermore, the general ERB of tourists had a significant effect on their site-specific destination ERB.

Keywords:

• Comparative optimism
• environmental quality assessment
• consideration of future consequences
• tourist destinations
• tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the reviewers for their beneficial suggestions that helped improve this paper. In addition, we are grateful to our post-graduate students who collected the data for this research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41371161).

Notes on contributors

Hongmei Zhang

Hongmei Zhang is a Professor in Shanghai Institute of Tourism, Shanghai Normal University, China. Her current research interests include consumer behavior in tourism, tourism destination marketing, pro-environmental behavior and national park.

Yechen Zhang

Yechen Zhang is a PH.D candidate in School of Geography and Tourism, Anhui Normal University, China. His current research adresses the field of sustainable tourism and national park.

Zibing Song

Zibing Song is a Professor in School of Tourism at Hianan Universiry, China. His research interests include tourist behavior and destination management.

Alan A. Lew

Alan A. Lew is a Professor in Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation, Northen Arizona University, USA. His current research interests include tourism resilience and adaptation, tourism and place making, and the role of travel in expanding global consciousness.