Attitudes, efficacy beliefs, and willingness to pay for environmental protection when travelling

Abstract

Environmental sustainability may be seen as a collective challenge that can only be met if a sufficient number of individuals cooperate. Whether or not individual tourists are willing to contribute their share may thus depend not only on the degree to which they think that environmental sustainability is important (attitudes), but also on the degree to which they think that other tourists hold similar attitudes (social comparison). Other possible influences are beliefs that one's own behaviour can make a difference (self-efficacy beliefs) and that tourists as a group together can make a difference (collective efficacy beliefs). This paper reports on findings from a study (N = 358) that investigated the role of these factors in explaining people's willingness to pay for environmental protection when travelling. Attitudes, self-efficacy and collective efficacy accounted for 30% of the variance in willingness to pay for environmental protection; social comparison did not explain additional variance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.