Pro-environmental attitude and sustainable tourism: a theoretical overview on the role of values

Abstract

Operators of the tourism industry are increasingly aware of the need to take into account the objectives of sustainable development. The World Tourism Organization has been underlining for several decades the importance and urgency of encouraging genuine sustainable tourism which reduces harmful externalities on the environment in general, and on local communities in particular (Shah et al., 2002), which guarantees better environmental, economic and social responsiveness (OMT, 2007). Sustainable tourism is intentionally concerned with protecting the environment, which itself contributes to the economic profitability of the business (Boiral and Jolly, 1992). The role of sustainable tourism is therefore to alleviate the negative externalities of tourism activities on the environment, society and the economy to achieve ecological, economically viable, as well as ethical and socially equitable sustainability. We seek to examine through this paper, pro-environmental behavior in general and that of tourists in particular. To do this, we will draw on a diverse literature with the aim of discussing the different theoretical approaches that examine pro-environmental attitudes and behavior, paying particular attention to the main theoretical arguments relating to the link between sustainable tourism and the pro-environmental behavior, based on the attitudes / values ​​of individuals. In addition, the main theories of behavior change provide information and indicators on the main factors shaping the behavior and attitudes of individuals in adopting pro-environmental behavior. Three main theories allow us to explain pro-environmental behavior through the prism of individual attitudes / values. These include Heider's (1958) "attribution theory" according to which people have two distinct ways of examining the intentions of their behaviors and the events associated with them, the "planned behavior" theory. of Ajzen (1985) which states that attitudes and social norms stimulate the inclinations of individuals and determine the behavior of individuals, and that known as “Value-Belief-Norms” of Stern which highlights the relationships between values and a person's beliefs about the environment, their responsibility for environmental conditions, and personal standards related to the environment, which in turn induce pro-environmental behaviors.

JEL Classification: Z32

Article type: Theoretical article