| By: |
Shalini Talwar (SPJIMR - S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research);
Puneet Kaur (UiB - University of Bergen, NWU - North-West University [Vaal Triangle Campus, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa]);
Octavio Escobar (EM Normandie - École de Management de Normandie);
Sai Lan (EM - emlyon business school) |
| Abstract: |
The tourism sector has always been a target of criticism due to the adverse
environmental effects of travel and activities at tourist destinations. It is
thus imperative for researchers and managers to seek tourism solutions that
make business sense without raising sustainability-related issues.
Particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual reality
tourism (VRT), a form of digitally-driven albeit unconventional ex-situ
touristic travel, has attracted the attention of multiple stakeholders in the
sector. However, consumers' perceptions of and motivations to use VRT as a
sustainable solution for touristic activities are yet not fully understood. We
address this deficiency in the literature by drawing upon expectancy theory to
propose goal difficulty and reduction in the environmental impact of tourism
(REI) as expectancy-related motivations, accomplishment as an
instrumentality-related motivation and willingness to sacrifice as a
valence-related motivation; we anticipate these motivations, in turn, to drive
two outcomes: low- and high-effort pro-environmental behaviours. Analysing
data collected from 350 individuals residing in the United States, we found
support for all positive associations except for that of goal difficulty with
high-effort pro-environmental behaviours and REI with both pro-environmental
behaviours. We also tested and confirmed the moderating effects of the number
of children in a household and daily green behaviours on some of the proposed
associations. Our findings offer useful insights for future research and
practice in the area. |
| Keywords: |
Expectancy theory, Ex-situ tourism, Innovation, Motivational forces, Pro-environmental behaviours, Sustainable development goals (SDG), Virtual reality tourism |
| Date: |
2022–11–01 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04325590&r=tur |