Does Positive Contact Between Residents and Tourists Stimulate Tourists’ Environmentally Responsible Behavior? The Role of Gratitude and Boundary Conditions

Abstract

This study explored how and when positive contact between residents and tourists stimulates tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior. Drawing on social exchange theory, we verified a moderated mediation model in which gratitude mediated the link between positive contact and tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior, while agreeableness moderated the relationship between positive contact and gratitude. Data were collected from 691 visitors to Mount Wuyi. The findings revealed that positive contact directly affected tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior and that this link was mediated by gratitude. Furthermore, agreeableness significantly moderated the effects of positive contact on gratitude. In particular, the effect of positive contact on gratitude was stronger for tourists with high agreeableness. Additionally, agreeableness also strengthened the indirect relationship between positive contact and tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior through gratitude—which was, again, stronger for highly agreeable tourists.

Does Sincere Social Interaction Stimulate Tourist Immersion? A Conservation of Resources Perspective

“…Hence, future studies can draw on these theories and find other mediators to examine the effect of sincere social interaction on tourist immersion. In addition, we ignored the potential outcomes of sincere social interaction, such as value co-creation (Chua et al 2021), tourist engagement (Lin, Zhang, and Gursoy 2021), tourist behavior intention (Tu et al 2020), and tourist gratitude (Tu and Ma 2021), and so forth. It is not clear whether sincere social interaction has as much effect on these outcomes as it does on tourist immersion.…”

“…These studies have deepened our understanding of tourist immersion to some extent; however, there has been little research into whether host-tourist interaction (e.g., sincere social interaction) can affect tourist immersion. In fact, host-tourist social interaction has a remarkable influence on tourists' perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors (Fan et al 2017b), such as perceived cultural distance (Fan et al 2017a), revisit intentions (Choo and Petrick 2014), and tourists' environmentally responsible behavior (Tu and Ma 2021). Moreover, social interaction influences tourists' perceptions of host sincerity (Li, Liu, and Wei 2021;Taheri et al 2018) and is vital to tourist immersion (Mossberg, Hanefors, and Hansen 2014).…”

Place Attachment, Host Tourists’ Interaction and Resident Welcoming Attitude: A Post Covid-19 Assessment Towards Tourism Recovery in Langkawi, Malaysia

“…According to a small number of studies, inhabitants' perceptions of the negative effects of tourism are linked to host-tourist interactions. Tu and Ma (2021) stated that inhabitants who interact with tourists frequently view tourism much more favourable. Based on this perspective, it is projected that residents' perceptions of favourable tourist benefits will be positively correlated with the intensity and pleasure of their social contacts.…”

How environmental emotions link to responsible consumption behavior: Tourism Agenda 2030

“…As powerful drivers of tourism sustainability (Ruhanen et al, 2019;Sun et al, 2021), tourists have a critical impact on the achievement of SDGs. Tourists' environmentally responsible behaviors, as a special subset of pro-social behaviors (Tu and Ma, 2021), refer to the conscious attempt of tourists to reduce the negative impact of their actions on nature, or to behave in a way that benefits the environment (Confente and Scarpi, 2020). Previous studies described tourists' environmentally responsible behaviors as a series of behaviors that tourists perform during sightseeing experience, which minimize negative environmental impacts and promote environmental protection (Su et al, 2020a(Su et al, , 2020b.…”