Embracing green: antecedents of Generation Z tourists’ pro-environmental behaviour in national parks

ABSTRACT

Encouraging environmentally-friendly behaviours among tourists, especially younger generations, is a pressing and vital task for both government authorities and industry practitioners. Our study investigates the impact of public environmental facilities, awe, and employee helpfulness on Generation Z tourists’ environmental commitment and their intention to protect the environment in national park tourism. We utilised an online survey to collect data from Chinese adult tourists born in or after 1995 who had visited national parks within the past one year. Based on the data analysis of 289 valid cases, we found that commitment to the environment significantly mediates the impact of awe and employee helpfulness on Generation Z tourists’ intention to protect the environment in national parks. However, public environmental facilities did not significantly affect commitment to the environment. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the current study are elaborated upon.

KEYWORDS:

• National park tourism
• pro-environmental behaviour
• Generation Z
• awe
• employee helpfulness
• commitment to the environment

Disclosure statement

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