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Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia Towards Behaving Responsibly

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Tourist Behavior

Part of the book series: Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management ((THEM))

Abstract

Several studies report that an attitude-behaviour gap often exists when considering the extent to which people behave responsibly when travelling. This study was carried out to deepen the scientific debate about the main factors shaping tourists’ inertia that prevent people from minding this attitude-behaviour gap. Data were collected from 837 Italian travellers, and proposed hypotheses were tested using a structural equation modelling approach. Findings reveal that three barriers (existential unwillingness to change, poor availability and variety of choices, lack of trust in the offer) define tourists’ inertia, which in turn influence self-reported responsible behaviour (favouring local authenticity, favouring environmentally friendly providers, favouring environmental practices). Furthermore, results show that the most important barriers explaining the attitude-behaviour gap are, in decreasing order of relevance, the lack of trust in this type of offer, the consumers’ unwillingness to change their behaviour, and the poor accessibility of this type of offer.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sassari & CRENoS, Sassari, Italy

    Giacomo Del Chiappa

  2. CEFAGE, University of Algarve and Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, Portugal

    Antónia H. Correia

  3. University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy

    Antónia H. Correia

Authors
  1. Giacomo Del Chiappa
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  2. Antónia H. Correia
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giacomo Del Chiappa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Tourism and Hotel Management, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey

    Metin Kozak

  2. Faculty of Tourism, Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey

    Nazmi Kozak

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Del Chiappa, G., Correia, A.H. (2018). Factors Shaping Tourists’ Inertia Towards Behaving Responsibly. In: Kozak, M., Kozak, N. (eds) Tourist Behavior. Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78553-0_4

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