Green or red faces? Tourist strategies when encountering irresponsible environmental behavior

ABSTRACT

Tourists’ green behavior plays a significant role in sustainable tourism development. Most of the previous research considered tourists exert green behavior independently, neglecting the influences of tourist-to-tourist interaction and the culture they are embedded in. This study took Chinese tourists visiting two lake tourism destinations (West Lake in Hangzhou and Xianshan Lake in Huzhou) as the research respondents and aimed to examine how tourist-to-tourist interaction within different relationships impact tourist on-site green behavior in Chinese face-culture settings. Based on a qualitative research approach using the critical incident technique, 76 incidents were investigated involving 29 Chinese tourists with different backgrounds. This research showed that the encounters among tourists were affected by the types of relationships (family, friends, and strangers) and Chinese face culture (the desire to gain face and the fear of losing face). The results contribute to the sustainable tourism literature by taking into consideration various types of social interactions, which positively or negatively affect green behavior. Fresh insights are revealed on how face consciousness influences Chinese social interactions and green behavior in tourism. The analysis of social interactions among tourists provides a new perspective for destination management organizations to enhance green behavior and improve sustainable management practices.

KEYWORDS:

• Tourist-to-tourist interactions
• green behavior
• face consciousness
• critical incident technique
• Chinese culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2022M710727) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72074053).

Notes on contributors

Jianxing Wu

Dr. Jianxing Wu is a lecturer at College of Economics and Management , China Jiliang University, China. He is interested in tourist green behavior and tourist-to-tourist interaction in cross cultural contexts.

Yingzhi Guo

Dr. Yingzhi Guo is a Professor of Tourism in Department of Tourism, Fudan University. Her research interest focuses on tourism planning, tourism marketing, and tourism geography.

Mao-Ying Wu

Mao-Ying Wu is an Associate Professor of Tourism, at School of Management, Zhejiang University, China. She gained her Ph.D degree at James Cook University, Australia. She is interested in entrepreneurship in rural tourism destinations, and tourists in emerging markets.

Alastair M. Morrison

Alastair M. Morrison, PhD, is a Research Professor in the School of Management and Marketing, Greenwich Business School, University of Greenwich in London, UK. He is also a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Purdue University, USA in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. He has published approximately 350 academic articles and conference proceedings, as well as over 50 research monographs related to marketing and tourism. He is the author of seven books on tourism marketing and development. His research interests include tourism destination management, marketing and branding, sustainable tourism, tourism cities, sharing economy and crisis management.

Shun Ye

Dr. Shun Ye is currently working as a Lecturer in School of Management, Zhejiang University. His research interests include tourism entrepreneurship, sharing economy and tourist behavior.