Low-carbon tourism for island destinations: A crucial alternative for sustainable development

The impact of climate change has been evidenced in several tourist destinations, and triggered concerns on the destination development. Low-carbon tourism has become a national, if not, global agenda that can be used to mitigate the climate change impact caused by the tourist destinations. To respond to this timely agenda and the United Nation World Tourism Organisation's (UNWTO) callout, this study establishes and verifies important components and attributes of low-Carbon destinations, particularly on island destination, which are still unexamined in the literature. Taking on the perspective of tourists, this study is driven by Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory which is a consolidative theoretical framework that integrates environmental input (external), emotional status (internal) and behavioural responses to explain actual behaviours of low-carbon tourists. Integrated generalised structured component analysis (IGSCA) and multigroup analysis were performed on 1808 travellers who posed different degrees of psychological fear of the COVID-19 pandemic. During COVID-19, health and safety risks have become a critical concern; therefore, this study further explores the moderating effect of risk from the perspective of the low- and high-perceived risk travellers, before identifying the attitude-behaviour gaps of these two groups. The study provides theoretical insights into low-carbon tourism experience at the island destinations and offers useful managerial implications on low-carbon destination development.

Automated summary

The impact of climate change on tourist destinations has led to concerns on destination development, making low-carbon tourism a national and global agenda. This study examines the components and attributes of low-carbon destinations, particularly island destinations, which have not yet been adequately researched. Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory, the study explores the actual behaviors of low-carbon tourists by integrating environmental input, emotional status, and behavioral responses. The study also investigates the moderating effect of risk from the perspective of travelers with different levels of perceived risk during the COVID-19 pandemic.