Attitudes, efficacy beliefs, and willingness to pay for environmental protection when travelling

Abstract

Environmental sustainability may be seen as a collective challenge that can only be met if a sufficient number of individuals cooperate. Whether or not individual tourists are willing to contribute their share may thus depend not only on the degree to which they think that environmental sustainability is important (attitudes), but also on the degree to which they think that other tourists hold similar attitudes (social comparison). Other possible influences are beliefs that one's own behaviour can make a difference (self-efficacy beliefs) and that tourists as a group together can make a difference (collective efficacy beliefs). This paper reports on findings from a study (N ¼ 358) that investigated the role of these factors in explaining people's willingness to pay for environmental protection when travelling. Attitudes, self-efficacy and collective efficacy accounted for 30% of the variance in willingness to pay for environmental protection; social comparison did not explain additional variance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Intentions to make sustainable tourism choices: do value orientations, time perspective, and efficacy beliefs explain individual differences?

“…Research suggests that strengthening these beliefs might promote sustainable consumption decisions at home (Gupta & Ogden, 2009;Hanss & Böhm, 2010;Hanss, Böhm, Doran, & Homburg, 2016) and on vacation (Doran et al, 2015). In their study, Doran et al (2015) found that people with a strong sense of self-efficacy (e.g. being confident that their choices of environmentally friendly transportation can help reduce carbon emissions) were also more likely to be willing to pay for environmental protection as tourists.…”

“…In a social dilemma context, the term self-efficacy is used somewhat differently, referring to judgments about whether one's contribution helps the group to secure some valued collective outcome (Kerr, 1992). Research suggests that strengthening these beliefs might promote sustainable consumption decisions at home (Gupta & Ogden, 2009;Hanss & Böhm, 2010;Hanss, Böhm, Doran, & Homburg, 2016) and on vacation (Doran et al, 2015). In their study, Doran et al (2015) found that people with a strong sense of self-efficacy (e.g.…”

“…Perceptions of collective efficacy is another factor that can benefit cooperation in social dilemmas (De Cremer, 1999;Seijts & Latham, 2000) and hence maybe also tourists' willingness to contribute to environmental preservation (Doran et al, 2015). The term collective efficacy refers to "a group's shared belief in its conjoint capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given levels of attainments" (Bandura, 1997, p. 477).…”

“…There are situations in which also the consumer choices made by individual tourists can be construed as social dilemmas (for similar views, see Anable, Lane, & Kelay, 2006;Doran, Hanss, & Larsen, 2015). As an example, participation in voluntary carbon offsetting schemes has been advocated as a means of compensating for greenhouse gas emissions that result from flying (UNWTO-UNEP, 2008).…”

“…This paper is located within work on the psychological characteristics of those willing to take environmental issues into account when choosing among different tourism alternatives (e.g. Doran & Larsen, 2016;Doran et al, 2015;Hedlund, 2011;Hedlund, Marell, & Gärling, 2012;Passafaro et al, 2015). Specifically, this paper focuses on a combination of psychological variables (i.e.…”