Italian Gen Z and sustainable coastal tourism: a segmentation analysis of knowledge, attitudes and pro-environmental behaviours Open Access

Coastal and marine tourism (CMT) constitutes nearly half of global tourism, and is valued at $4.6tn or 5.2% of global gross domestic product (Northrop et al., 2022; UNWTO, 2022). While economically important, the future of CMT is under significant threat from unsustainable practices and environmental degradation. Tourism and other human activities may have impacts on the marine and coastal ecosystem (Partelow et al., 2015). As for the environmental effects of tourism and tourism-related sectors (e.g. transportation and accommodation) on coastal areas, these are extensive and include carbon emissions, land cover change, wastewater discharge, land and marine litter, air pollution, and water and energy consumption (Smith et al., 2023). Tourism is a highly emissions-intensive industry, contributing between 8 and 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2013 (WTTC, 2021), and it has a higher carbon intensity than major economic sectors such as manufacturing, construction and services (Lenzen et al., 2018). In addition, globally around 49% of tourism-related emissions are generated by transport and just over 6% by accommodation (WTTC, 2021).

However, there is an interdependent relationship between the environment and tourism (Wang et al., 2020), and the above impacts can gradually destroy the environmental resources on which tourism itself depends. Because of that interdependence, the environmentally sustainable development of the tourism sector is crucial in the short and the long term to contribute to the 2030 UN SDGs, particularly Goal 14, and to the future of blue growth sectors (Leposa, 2020). This situation highlights the urgency of setting marine and coastal tourism on a path towards sustainability and resilience (Villasante et al., 2023), with the younger generations being strongly involved in this, as they will shape future trends in tourism.

The youth travel market plays an important role worldwide (American Express Travel, 2024; European Travel Commission, 2020); it is an attractive market segment with high potential which is capable of influencing the future development of tourism. In addition, global trends highlight the growing interest of young people in sustainability issues: a recent report (Deloitte, 2022) affirms that Generation Z and Millennials (individuals born between 1997 and 2012, and 1981 and 1996, respectively; PEW Research, 2019) are doing their part by making efforts to protect the environment and are changing their behaviour. However, Generation Z (Gen Z) is a segment for which it is difficult to speak in general terms, and which cannot be assumed to be homogeneous. This is because of the different lifestyles, motivations and habits of young people, who are still discovering and consolidating their consumption preferences (European Travel Commission, 2020).

Understanding the knowledge, opinions, attitudes and behaviours of young people is fundamental in driving the development of the tourism industry in a sustainable direction, not only because of the size of the youth segment and the growth of tourist flows, but also because this paves the way for innovation and responsible tourism (Vukic et al., 2015).

Despite the growing body of literature on sustainable tourism, there are a limited number of studies focusing on the role of younger generations, particularly Gen Z, in adopting sustainable behaviours in the coastal and marine tourism context. Existing studies often treat Gen Z as a homogeneous group, overlooking the diverse profiles and attitudes within this cohort (Cavagnaro et al., 2018, 2021).

Given the research gaps highlighted above, the aim of the study is to contribute to the empirical literature on young people’s knowledge of, and attitudes and behaviour towards, marine and coastal environments, and to provide insights into the presence of different segments and youth approaches to the sustainability of CMT.

Specifically, the study seeks to address two key questions:

To answer the above research questions, this study focuses on members of Generation Z living in Italy. The choice of Italy as the study context is motivated by its strategic position in the Mediterranean Sea and by the importance of marine and coastal tourism in Italy (Marasco et al., 2023). As a Mediterranean country with a significant reliance on marine tourism, Italy faces critical environmental challenges, including coastal erosion and anthropogenic pressures: its vast coastline of almost 8,000 km is highly anthropised, with 15 of its 20 regions having a coastline. In addition, the Italian coast is naturally subject to erosion (Trigila et al., 2021) and suffers from various anthropic impacts derived from demographic factors as well as from other sources and activities (Istat, 2022). In this context, studying Generation Z is important in obtaining an understanding of how to address future environmental challenges, in promoting the commitment of this population to the sustainability of life and tourism practices in coastal areas, and, finally, in engaging this young generation in sustainable practices, as they will shape future tourism trends. This generational status is also considered relevant because people of this age are at a turning point in their lives where they are expected to enter the workforce or to engage in higher education that could be relevant throughout their life. The segmentation of Gen Z into different profiles finds its rationale in the fact that, although members of the same generation share similar generational characteristics, they are far from being homogeneous because they have different lifestyles, motivations and habits (European Travel Commission, 2020).

After a descriptive analysis aimed at answering RQ1, the study makes a segmentation of Gen Z in order to identify, characterise and compare the profiles of young individuals (RQ2) and evaluate which segments (if any) might respond positively to sustainable CMT proposals.

Past research has recognised various aspects through which individuals perceive the value of a location, and has considered, among others, ecological, economic and recreational values (Rasoolimanesh et al., 2016).

Concerns about the impacts of tourism on coastal and marine environments have become crucial in tourism research (Hall, 2021; Leposa, 2020). On the one hand, some research has emphasised the need for strategies to reduce the environmental degradation caused by CMT, especially in marine protected areas (Lucrezi et al., 2021); on the other hand, the negative impacts of tourism affect the perceived quality and value of tourist destinations (Dimitrovski et al., 2021; Li et al., 2022). Liu et al. (2020) addressed the topic of sustainable tourism in terms of civilised behaviour that results from a combination of the perceptions, emotions, knowledge, and responsibility associated with tourists’ behaviour in coastal areas.

With regard to theoretical approaches, the knowledge–attitude–behaviour (KAB) theory is considered to be particularly fruitful in dealing with the complex environmental issues related to CMT (Schrader and Lawless, 2004), especially when referring to young people engaged in a learning phase. The KAB framework (Bloom et al., 1956) goes beyond simple constructs of knowledge acquisition, and includes the idea that all three domains are interrelated: it assumes that when people are provided with information about environmental problems and what they can do to reduce their impact on these problems, they develop and believe that certain types of behaviour are correct or wrong. The KAB model was designed around the assumption that knowledge can change attitudes which, in turn, can change behaviour. These characteristics of the model are considered particularly relevant in relation to the focus of this study on young people, who are at the stage of acquiring knowledge, generating beliefs, and forming behaviour.

The KAB framework is not so widely applied in published works in tourism studies than other frameworks, such as the theory of planned behaviour, the value belief norm theory, and the new environmental paradigm (Kement et al., 2023). Anyway, the KAB framework has been applied in different tourism contexts: among airline passengers (Chuaychoo, 2021), among leisure travellers (Walsh and Dodds, 2022), in rural tourism (Zhu and Deng, 2020), and in the context of medical tourism (Ahmad and Sheikh, 2024).

According to Abdullah et al. (2019b), who discussed the relevance of tourists’ knowledge, attitude and behaviour for the sustainability of marine parks, empirical support for the KAB theory is still lacking. They suggested that the content of knowledge, including the “know–what” and the “know–how”, and the relevance of the knowledge for sustainable tourism, should be better specified.

Frick et al. (2004) identified three dimensions of environmental knowledge that could influence pro-environmental behaviour (PEB): factual knowledge, defined as basic knowledge about the relationships of ecosystems, the interaction of organisms and the reasons for environmental problems; action-related knowledge, which refers to knowledge of the potential options or action strategies that can be developed; and procedural knowledge, which refers to people’s understanding of their ability and skill to take action in conserving the environment. Moving from factual to procedural knowledge, we move from an objective type of knowledge, which is based on scientific facts, observable phenomena and evidence, to a subjective type of knowledge, which is based on personal opinions, feelings and experiences.

The study by Kamis et al. (2020) applied the KAB framework to the investigation of the effect of training courses on safety for seafarers on their knowledge, attitude and behaviour, and concluded that the training had a positive effect on the seafarers’ KAB. Yudhistira et al. (2023) studied the relationship between tourists’ knowledge about, and attitudes towards, visiting a destination, while also investigating the mediating roles of perceived value and social media use; their study was carried out among Generation Z respondents in Bali.

In considering the process of forming PEB, the attitude of the individual is very commonly investigated. The tri-component attitude model (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) argues that attitude includes three components: cognition (thought), affection (feeling), and behaviour (action). In the context of sustainable tourism, Passafaro’s (2020) review investigated the role of attitude in understanding tourists’ sustainable choices, and underlined the complexity and variety of a multifaceted tourism construct in relation to the behaviour of individuals. The study by Jayasekara et al. (2024) dealt with the impacts of environmental knowledge, motives, and behaviour on ecotourism in a marine park, and affirmed that motivating individuals to participate in environment-related activities is important for encouraging PEB and has a positive impact on the value perception of a tourist destination.

The topic of PEB, both in general and in relation to tourism, has aroused growing interest in the past decade among scholars of different disciplines, as stated in some recent reviews (Farrukh et al., 2023; Feng et al., 2024; Lange, 2023). According to Grilli and Curtis (2021), who reviewed the literature on PEB, the most frequently studied behaviours concern the fields of energy, waste disposal and recycling, and the majority of studies are conducted in Europe and North America and target families, while a substantial minority of studies focus on other behavioural domains, and on students. Carvajal-Trujillo et al. (2024) carried out a bibliometric and content analysis of the literature on tourists’ PEB, and underlined the complexity of the topic as well as its relevance within several frameworks and contexts; in addition, they found that keywords such as “environmental awareness”, “environmental knowledge”, and “attitudes” have become more important in recent years when analysing PEB among tourists.

As reported by Feng et al. (2024), tourism represents one of the main subjects of studies into environmentally responsible behaviour, with most such studies being developed by scholars from China, and only a very few by scholars from EU countries. These studies mainly refer to nature-based places and protected areas.

A distinction between hard- and low-effort PEB (Zhang et al., 2018) has been considered in studies dealing with tourism (Buffa, 2015; Wang et al., 2019) and with coastal tourism (Tonge et al., 2015). Finally, Campos et al. (2018) investigated the importance of individual, contextual and geographical factors in increasing tourists’ awareness of the environmental implications of their vacations and in their PEB.

Focusing on Generation Z theoretically positions this study within a generation framework. The generational theory (Mannheim, 1952) posits a cohort effect and postulates that generations are unique and distinct from each other in preferences, behaviour and tastes. Chen and Shoemaker (2014) observed that shared experiences and similar external events experienced at a young age within a same generation influence the formation of young people’s value systems and personality, preferences, attitudes, and behaviours.

From a tourism point of view, the generational literature contains extensive research investigating a specific cohort or following a cross-generational perspective (Gardiner et al., 2015; Pascual-Fraile et al., 2024).

A rich body of literature is focused on young people’s experience in tourism and on their appreciation of friendly practices in the sector (Baltescu, 2019; Çalışkan, 2021; Corbisiero et al., 2022; Dębski and Borkowska-Niszczota, 2020; Haddouche and Salomone, 2018; Karaman and Aykin, 2021). Some studies analyse the environmental attitudes, drivers and PEB of young travellers (Buffa, 2015; D’Arco et al., 2023; Nowacki et al., 2023; Pinho and Gomes, 2023; Salinero et al., 2022). Monaco (2018) and Pencarelli et al. (2020) described the emerging trends among the younger generations in Italy and underlined the great attention they give to online sources and social networks and platforms. Buffa (2015) investigated young Italian tourists’ attitudes to sustainability and distinguished the behaviour of two groups, based on whether they made great or little effort to adopt pro-environmental actions, with members of the first group more aware of the environmental impact of tourism. A recent study by Saulick et al. (2024) investigated PEB among students in Mauritius and highlighted the importance of promoting this behaviour, since these individuals are the leaders of tomorrow and their actions can play an important role in moving towards environmental sustainability. These authors also supported the need for more studies to delve deeper into the PEB of young people. Finally, some studies on the younger generations have explored the issue of ocean literacy (Borja et al., 2020; Lin et al., 2020) and investigated how personal factors, such as attitudes and knowledge, influence sustainable behaviour related to oceans.

Understanding the paradigms that characterise Generation Z is therefore important for the successful future development of sustainable marine tourism.

As previously reported, Gen Z travellers are far from being homogeneous, because of their different lifestyles, motivations and habits (European Travel Commission, 2020). Cluster analysis is widely applied as a segmentation method to identify groups of young people on the basis of their (sustainable) tourism and environmental values (Cavagnaro et al., 2018). Furthermore, segmentation analysis offers the possibility of comparing different profiles, and of seeing how each cluster combines the values, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours of its participants; finally, cluster analysis and the different profiles it produces may offer insights into the tailored tools and strategies that can be applied to reach the various segments. Cluster analysis is widely applied in environmental and tourism literature (Cavagnaro and Staffieri, 2015; Cavagnaro et al., 2018, 2021; D’Urso et al., 2021; Forleo et al., 2019).

Even in the specific context of sustainable tourism, the literature that has applied segmentation analysis is very rich and diversified. To mention just some applications of cluster analysis published in the last year, there are studies that explore the preferences of young adults when choosing a sustainable ski destination (Kuščer et al., 2025), and residents’ perceptions of sustainable tourism (Caro-Carretero and Monroy-Rodríguez, 2025); authors have categorised tourists on the basis of their attitudes to sustainability and degrowth (Pinto et al., 2025), and other scholars have classified cultural festival participants (Dávila et al., 2025); finally, there are studies that have applied segmentation analysis within the context of creative tourism (Zou et al., 2025).

The socio-demographic characteristics of young people, among them gender and education, territorial area and living status, are frequently considered in studies dealing with sustainable tourism among the younger generations (Buffa, 2015; Cavagnaro and Staffieri, 2015; Karaman and Aykin, 2021).

To pursue the aims of the study, a direct survey was implemented involving students attending their final year of high school and living in central Italy (the Abruzzo and Molise regions). This subgroup of Gen Z is particularly interesting within the generational cohort as these young people are about to start a new school or enter the job market.

The sampling method was based on a three-phase strategy: in the first phase, four neighbouring cities (two per region) were selected and differentiated based on their size (one small and one medium) and location (one coastal and one inland); in the second phase, all the public comprehensive institutes located in each city and including high secondary schools -that are part of that institutes-were identified (for a total of ten institutes and 31 schools); finally, in the third phase, for each institute and school all students in the final classes were invited to participate in the survey. The investigation process began with the formal invitation to all types of schools belonging to the comprehensive institutes; after their recruitment, the schools were invited to select the classes of participants to respond to the survey, and a programme of in-person sessions was agreed for a maximum of two classes per school and a total duration of two hours for each session. Authorisation was requested from the institutes to conduct the surveys inside the classrooms. The sessions were carried out by the research team and in the presence of the educators during the period January-May 2024. This strategy helped ensure that most students remained in class to participate in the study. While the students were completing the questionnaire, the research team provided any assistance requested by the participants. A total of 38 classes from eighteen schools in the ten institutes agreed to participate, and a total of 19 in-person sessions were held. Before the survey was implemented, a pilot test was administered to a sample of 30 respondents and to three teachers to check for any problems with comprehension; none of the participants experienced any difficulty in completing the questionnaire instrument and it was not necessary to modify the item wording.

The anonymous questionnaire was self-administered at the schools during the period January-May 2024 after a face-to-face seminar introducing the study aims and describing the organisation of the survey activities and the tools of the investigation. In order to reduce social desirability bias and make the participants more comfortable, they were assured that were being involved without being overheard, that all information shared remained anonymous and confidential, that they would not be judged on the basis of their answers, and, finally, that all data would only be used for research and in an aggregate form without the answers given being linked to the respondent in any way. Before filling in the questionnaire, the students were informed about the nature of the survey and invited to give their consent according to the EU general data protection regulation (Reg. 2016/679). The final sample was composed of 778 students. Table 1 reports the main socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents.

The selection of the topics addressed in the questionnaire was inspired by the previous literature, such as the study of Abdullah et al. (2019b) and its KAB conceptual framework, the work of Miller (2003) about people’s interest in environmental information about holiday destinations, and, finally, the studies of Lee et al. (2014) and Abdullah et al. (2019a) about PEB attitudes.

Three subjective knowledge statements and three objective knowledge items were considered. The main sources of information were also investigated. The attitudes involved the cognitive, behavioural, and emotional spheres, with different questions. As regards the actual PEB, the respondents were asked about their participation in activities requiring a high-effort commitment (participation in citizens’ science campaigns in marine and coastal areas, and volunteering in marine protection initiatives), and a low-effort commitment (participation in conferences and events related to environmentally sustainable CMT). Finally, the respondents were asked to select the two most important drivers in choosing a coastal tourist destination, apart from the cost of the holiday: the presence of tourist attractions; the quality of the coastal and marine environment; the gastronomy and traditions; and the availability of enjoyable activities.

The respondents were asked about the most important values of coastal and marine environments, and the values that would be most under threat by the year 2030. The value items were structured on the basis of selected marine ecosystem services (Chakraborty et al., 2020): provisioning services in terms of food for human nutrition; tourism and recreational services; services for energy production; regulatory and maintenance services; cultural services structured for physical use and the aesthetic benefits of land/seascapes in historical-cultural traditions; and scientific and educational services.

The young people’s opinions about the importance of coastal and marine tourism in the blue economy scenario of 2030 were gathered.

The students’ concern about the effects on tourism of the environmental degradation of coastal and marine resources by 2030 was investigated. Finally, the respondents were invited to select the two most important contributions that could be made by sustainable tourism to preserve the quality of marine and coastal environments: reducing the atmospheric emissions related to transport; reducing the production of waste; reducing the consumption of drinking water; reducing the consumption of land surfaces; and other ways.

The final section collected some demographic information, such as the respondents’ gender, field of education and school type, and the characteristics of the area in which they lived (whether coastal or inland).

Since the sample was composed of students attending the final class of upper secondary education which in Italy lasts for five years (from a minimum age of 14 at the time of enrolment), all participants were aged between 18 and 20 years.

In the first step of the data analysis, it was necessary to code the responses, by rescaling the true/false options into right/wrong answers for the knowledge questions; furthermore, single scores were averaged at construct level (i.e. the knowledge and attitudes constructs and the PEBs).

In order to answer RQ1, descriptive statistics for the frequency distribution of the investigated phenomena were produced. In addition, the level of significance of the differences in responses among the groups based on the socio-demographic and other characteristics of the respondents was examined. The Mann–Whitney U test was used to compare two groups with a non-normal distribution, and the Kruskal–Wallis test was used for more than two groups. All statistical tests were performed considering significance of the p-value at the level of α = 0.05 and α = 0.01.

To answer RQ2, a cluster analysis (Kaufman and Rousseeuw, 2005) was applied. This is a frequently used statistical technique whose aim is to detect homogeneous segments and to describe variations in the sample under scrutiny. Ward’s clustering method and the Gower distance were applied using the statistical software Stata13. As for the choice of the optimal number of clusters, the most commonly used empirical elbow method was followed. This involves reporting, on a plot, the between-cluster variance for different numbers k of clusters and choosing the number of clusters for which the graph presents an elbow. In addition, for each cluster solution, the Caliński–Harabasz pseudo-F index was considered as a further stopping rule for detecting the number of clusters; distinct clustering is characterised by large Caliński–Harabasz pseudo-F values. The cluster analysis was based on the average score each respondent reported for subjective and objective knowledge, attitude, and PEB, and on variables expressing opinions about the importance of and the threats to tourism and ecological values. Significant differences in demographic characteristics were then examined for each cluster profile.

This section is organised as follows.

In order to answer RQ1, the first paragraph presents the descriptive statistics about the participants’ knowledge of, and attitudes and behaviour towards, the issues of the environmental protection of coastal and marine ecosystems and the sustainability of tourism; the second paragraph presents the findings of the test analysis by investigating the significant differences in results by demographics, knowledge and pro-environmental variables.

The third paragraph reports the results of the segmentation analysis and answers RQ2 by revealing the Gen Z profiles, their different levels of knowledge, attitudes and behaviour in relation to the above issues, and their socio-demographic characteristics.

Table 2 reports the distribution of answers for the knowledge constructs.

As regards the questions related to subjective knowledge, approximately half of the respondents declared that they were informed on the topic of coastal and marine sustainability, but less than a quarter of them declared that they were able to assess the environmental quality of coastal and marine destinations; finally, only 5% believed that they were considered an expert among their peers. The most commonly used media source was the web and social media (82% of individuals).

Regarding the objective knowledge sphere, the percentage of wrong answers decreases as the territorial scale of the knowledge shrinks through the levels of the Earth, the Mediterranean and the Italian coast. When looking at correct answers, this is not the same because the respondents performed better for the question at the Mediterranean scale than for those at the levels of the Earth and Italy. This difference in the distribution of correct/wrong answers is because of the weight of “don’t know” answers, which reduces when the scale increases from the national to the regional and then to the planet level; surprisingly, the highest percentage of “don’t know” answers (57%) was for the question of whether the length of the Italian coastline is about 8,000 kilometres. By jointly considering the responses on all items capturing the objective knowledge, about half of the sample responded correctly to two of the knowledge items; in addition, the percentage of those who got three right answers was greater (9%) than the percentage of those who got three wrong answers (2%) or three “don’t knows” (4%).

In summary, Table 2 reveals that the participants did not have a high level of objective knowledge, while the responses on subjective knowledge tended to stay in the middle and about half of the sample answered that they knew about coastal and marine sustainability.

As regards people’s attitudes (Table 3), the level of agreement of the individuals to statements in the cognitive sphere appears very high, both in terms of the interest in the environmental state of the sea and coasts (74%), and regarding the belief that the conservation of marine/coastal resources is in conflict with economic activity (65%). The emotional attitude of the individuals was very strong, with people tending to assign a medium-high level to their feelings about the environmental quality of coastal areas when they go on holiday.

The two behaviours that people were most willing to adopt to make a personal contribution to the protection of the state of marine coastal environments are linked to “not throwing waste into the sea and on the beaches” and “not using single-use plastic products”. By contrast, the students were not so strongly disposed to adopt behaviour such as not damaging the paths over dunes, not using detergent when showering on the beach, not removing material from the beach or the sea, and, finally, not lighting bonfires on the beach. On average, people’s behavioural attitudes were rated between the “little” and “fairly” levels, but only 2% of the interviewees gave “not at all” answers to all the options, compared to those (15%) who declared that they could make a large contribution by adopting all the sustainable behaviours.

As regards the young people’s current PEB, the global picture is not very promising. The highest frequency of responses was reported for the “never” option for both high- (around 80%) and low-effort activities (64%). By jointly considering the responses over all the three activities, it is revealed that more than half of the sample declared that they had never carried out any activity.

Overall, the results reported in Table 3 indicate medium to high levels in attitudes towards sustainable CMT among the Italian Gen Z.

Considering the personal factors that young Italians look at when choosing a destination for seaside tourism, the responses were ranked as follows: the presence of tourist attractions (65%), the quality of the marine environment (60%), the availability of activities that they can perform on holiday (44%), and finally the local culture and traditions (32%).

The ecological value is considered to be both highly important (for 61% of respondents) and under threat (77%), compared with the touristic value of the marine and coastal ecosystems (respectively, important and threatened for 59 and 32% of the sample). About a quarter of the sample jointly selected touristic and ecological values in terms of importance, and 17% were concerned for each single value.

Among the three most important blue economy sectors envisaged for the future, 60% of the individuals chose tourism.

When asked how CMT could contribute to preserving the quality of seas and coasts, the respondents put the reduction of waste first (84%), then the reduction of emissions from transport (70%). The respondents gave a lower weight to the contribution of the tourism sector in reducing soil and water consumption (respectively, 25 and 18% of individuals).

Table 4 shows the results of the test analysis, highlighting only the variables that reveal significant differences among the demographic, knowledge and pro-environmental variables.

Overall, it emerges that gender, area of residence, and education lead to differences for several variables.

Considering the gender of the respondents, the null hypothesis may be rejected for two of the items assessing the level of subjective knowledge, and for the three items of objective knowledge; in addition, statistical differences emerged regarding the concerns about the future of CMT, and the presence of tourism attractions. As for the attitudes, the personal interest in the environmental status of the sea and the coast, all the behavioural items, and participation in environmental events, differ by gender. Females reported higher values than males for several items.

The area of residence makes a difference in the distribution of answers related to the two subjective knowledge items, but not regarding the objective knowledge items; in particular, people living in coastal areas considered themselves to be experts and to be able to assess the environmental quality of coastal marine destinations, but they did not perform differently from people living in inland areas when it came to the questions measuring objective knowledge. In addition, coastal residents were more worried about future threats to the tourism value of the marine coastal sites, while inland residents were more worried about threats to the ecological value; finally, among the items asking about PEB, only participation in volunteering campaigns was higher among the coastal residents, while other behaviours showed no difference by area of residence.

The environmental status makes a difference to the drivers of peoples’ choice of destination. In addition, the level of perception of future threats for both the development of the tourism sector and the quality of the coastal and marine environment appears sensitive to the residential area of the individuals. As regards attitudes, the significant items emerging from the gender test were also relevant for the residential context, together with the item that captured the emotional attitude.

From a global view, living in a coastal area did not increase the score that people assigned to their attitudes, which are contrary to what one would expect; in contrast, those living in inland areas were more likely to adopt sustainable behavioural attitudes than coastal residents, and these respondents were more interested in the environmental status of marine coastal areas.

As regards the type of education, the set of phenomena that are distributed differently is similar to that emerging for the place of residence of the young respondents, but with objective knowledge about the ocean added.

Testing the differences by level of knowledge reveals that having greater knowledge increases the scores, but that subjective knowledge causes greater differentiation than objective knowledge. In particular, the level of subjective knowledge differentiates between the respondents’ behavioural attitudes towards the environment, their affective attitudes and one of the cognitive items (conflicts between tourism and environment), but it does not involve people’s drivers, values assessment and concern. By contrast, the level of objective knowledge differentiates between the respondents’ concerns about the environmental impacts on tourism and about the threats to the ecological value of marine environments, and between some attitudinal behaviours.

Finally, there is differentiation according to the students’ current PEB in respect of their subjective knowledge assessment, and their cognitive and some behavioural attitudes.

Overall, significant differences emerged from results of the test analysis, with the most significant being based on the gender, residential location, and educational background of the participants.

Five homogeneous groups of young people emerged from the cluster analysis. Table 5 reports the average values of the variables included in the analysis and Table 6 reports the demographic characteristics of the Gen Z profiles.

The first group is the largest and includes approximately 30% of those surveyed. Several reasons led to this group being named as the most environmentally promising and prone to a sustainable CMT offer. The group is strongly convinced about the negative effects that the environmental quality of marine and coastal areas will have on tourism in the future, and only a few among them are undecided; in addition, they give more weight to the ecological value, rather than the tourism value, of marine and coastal ecosystems, in terms of both future importance and future threats. They are quite positively disposed towards sustainable CMT in terms of their cognitive and behavioural attitudes. The group is mainly composed of females attending schools in the field of humanities and arts; compared to other groups, the presence of students in the fields of science, health and welfare is not negligible; finally, most of the young in the cluster live in big cities located in inland areas.

The second group brings together individuals who declare that they have good subjective knowledge, but who give more wrong answers to all the statements testing objective knowledge. In terms of attitude, they are quite positive in the emotional sphere but they have low scores for their behavioural attitudes as regards the intention to contribute with specific actions to the preservation of the marine coastal environment. Respondents in this group account for 14% of the sample, which is about the same as the third cluster. This group is mainly composed of males who are attending both gymnasiums and schools in the tertiary service sector. Regarding the area in which they live, a high percentage of the students live in small cities, and there is quite a high proportion of coastal residents compared to other groups.

One trait alone would be enough to characterise the third group, which represents about 15% of the sample. Eighty per cent of the individuals belonging to this group think that the marine status should not be a problem for the future development of coastal and marine tourism. Consistently, they do not consider the tourism value of marine coastal sites to be at risk; moreover, they are not very concerned about the ecological value. People in this group have quite low scores for the subjective and objective knowledge items. Likewise, their cognitive and behavioural attitudes are quite weak: this is the Gen Z group that mostly declares itself to be unable to contribute to protecting the status of marine coastal ecosystems. The group is characterised by male students attending vocational and technical schools. The educational profile of the group is composite and shows a comparatively high percentage of students in social sciences, business, and law, as well as in services and engineering. The students mainly live in small cities located in coastal areas. This last aspect adds one more peculiarity to the group. In fact, peculiar to this group and contrary to what was expected, the group includes a reasonable presence of people living near a marine protected site, where it can be assumed that the environmental quality is under control; indeed, this could be a reason for them not being concerned about future threats to tourism.

“Illiterate” young tourists who lack knowledge, are irresolute but are concerned represent 20% of the sample. These students are very sensitive to the presence of tourist attractions when choosing their holidays, while not caring so much about the environmental status of their destination. They consider tourism value to be quite important in the future development of marine coastal areas and are highly concerned about the future perspectives for tourism; however, 87% of them also have concerns about the ecological value of marine ecosystems. The group reports the lowest scores for both hard and soft marine PEB; in addition, as regards their attitudinal behaviours, the responses reveal a low contribution, with the exception of not throwing waste in the sea and not using plastic. This group of people is highly irresolute in terms of objective knowledge, since 51 and 69% of them, respectively, did not give a response for the items related to the extent of the Mediterranean Sea and the length of the Italian coastline. Consistent with this, they are conscious of not having subjective knowledge about the topics under investigation. The group is composed of students attending a scientific gymnasium and living in medium-sized cities located in inland areas.

The fifth group, accounting for 22% of the sample, is a group that is likely to respond positively to a sustainable tourism offer. It appears to be the most affected in terms of emotional attitudes; in addition, the group members have high scores on the cognitive attitude questions and are very concerned about the future effect of the quality of the environment on the results of tourism. Furthermore, the group is the one with the strongest disposition to take action to contribute to the sustainable protection of coastal and marine environments. In terms of objective knowledge, this group has the highest percentage of correct answers to the statements related to the Mediterranean Sea and the Italian coastline, but lag behind in correct knowledge of the extent of the ocean. The group is characterised by a higher proportion of females studying social sciences and business and living in medium-sized cities located in inland areas.

In conclusion, the segmentation analysis identified five distinct clusters, ranging from those considered the most promising and with the strongest sustainable attitudes to those with minimal involvement and a lack of concern.

The study assessed the sensitiveness and knowledge of young Italians on issues related to coastal and marine environments, as well as their attitudes and behaviours towards the protection of coastal and marine ecosystems and the sustainability of CMT.

Italians are not insensitive to the environmental status of coastal and marine destinations when choosing their holidays. In this regard, the study results are consistent with the results obtained by Buffa (2015) and by Cavagnaro et al. (2021) among Italians aged 19–29 years.

A generally low level of knowledge about marine coastal issues emerged in the Italian Gen Z, in line with the results of Binangun and Satrya (2021), Guest et al. (2015) and Lin et al. (2020), although, as in these works, great importance is attached to coastal and marine ecosystems. The positive attitude of the Italian Gen Z towards the coastal and marine environment together with their scant knowledge is a promising baseline for increasing their knowledge and developing their attention to the potential of blue jobs.

According to some studies (Dębski and Borkowska-Niszczota, 2020; Haddouche and Salomone, 2018; Pinho and Gomes, 2023), sustainable tourism is not a key concept for young people and nor do they have pro-environmental habits, although they are concerned about the environment. Our findings lead to different conclusions about behavioural attitudes that are on the whole quite positive, as are our findings about the attention paid by the respondents to the environment when choosing a coastal marine tourism destination. These conclusions, especially the profiles of the most sustainable clusters, confirm the work of Cavagnaro and Staffieri (2015), who found evidence that a core group of young tourists in the Netherlands were motivated by pro-environmental values in their travel choice, and the work of Cavagnaro et al. (2021), who found that there were some segments of the young Italian population with high self-transcendence values connected to nature-related travel motivations.

However, the results of the study indicate that significant interventions are needed in order to stimulate young people to adopt proper environmental behaviours, especially those that require greater effort and in which our respondents were little involved. As for the sustainable behaviours that young Italians are most disposed to undertake, the study results only put a strong emphasis on marine litter prevention and single-use plastics. This is consistent with the results of other studies that have highlighted the attention given to the topic of marine and plastic litter in Italy (Forleo and Romagnoli, 2021, 2023).

As regards the relevance of socio-demographic characteristics in relation to the knowledge issues, this study shows that gender, area of residence and field of education are relevant in the distinctions between the results for several phenomena. Females are less well-informed than males, but are more disposed to adopt sustainable behaviour and to participate in events on the topic; this result is consistent with those from other studies (Cavagnaro and Staffieri, 2015; Guest et al., 2015).

Living in a coastal or an inland area was expected to result in a differentiation for people’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour, on the assumption that those living along the coast should give more importance to the environmental protection of marine coastal areas and the sustainability of tourism. The absence of significant differences in objective knowledge with respect to the area in which the respondents lived could be due to the fact that the questions were so general (they asked about the surface of the oceans, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Italian coast) that the answers should be part of the knowledge base of all people, regardless of where they live. On the other hand, the fact that those living in coastal areas have a greater subjective knowledge could be derived from their greater familiarity with issues related to the sea, and a greater self-perception of their own knowledge.

Whether or not a person lived in a context characterised by the presence of marine protected areas was expected to have some effect on the responses about the state of marine and coastal environment and protection status, because people living in areas not having a protected status should show greater concern and stronger attitudes towards a better environment. Indeed, as in the study of Campos-Soria et al. (2018), a challenge-response hypothesis – which states that concerns and interests for environmental protection are higher when people are confronted with objective environmental problems in the area in which they live – was supported in this study. This emerges from the test analysis and from the profile of the third cluster, which consists of individuals living in a marine protected area who showed a lower concern about, and perception of, threats to the marine and coastal ecosystems, lower attitudes and appreciation of ecological values.

The PEB observed in the sample appears counterintuitive and there could be merit in an in-depth study to verify whether living in an inland area stimulates the development of positive attitudes towards the marine environment more than among coastal inhabitants who, except for volunteering, may underestimate the contribution that individual behaviour can make in maintaining the quality of their living environments.

Finally, the results of the cluster analysis show a variety of profiles with well-defined characteristics related to the topics under investigation, which speaks to the complexity of the knowledge about, and attitudes and behaviours towards, sustainable tourism observed among the Italian Generation Z; this complexity cannot be caught by investigating single aspects but only by adopting a comprehensive framework for the analyses. Second, although in some groups all phenomena were at their lowest or highest level of intensity, identifying the worst or best global profiles, in others the segmentation picked up single phenomena that positively or negatively characterised the clusters. This is the case for the group who have a good level of knowledge about the topics and show valuable PEB but are little disposed towards contributing by making their tourism experience more sustainable. It is also the case for the cluster of people who lack knowledge and are irresolute but are aware of the importance of, and are concerned about, the tourism and ecological values of coastal and marine ecosystems; this result is consistent with that found for the younger cluster of Cavagnaro et al. (2021). Finally, our segmentation points out that there are some groups who are difficult to reach with a sustainable tourism offer and others who could be sensitive to sustainable CMT, which is consistent with the studies by Cavagnaro and Staffieri (2015) and Cavagnaro et al. (2018, 2021).

From a theoretical point of view, this empirical study enriches the literature exploring the KAB approach with an application in the context of CMT sustainability, where research has not been so widespread, as reported in the literature section. Secondly, the study contributes to the KAB approach by expanding the types of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of individuals. A further development of the study could enlarge the spectrum and types of attitudes observed in the context of sustainable tourism by following the suggestion of Passafaro (2020) about the internal conceptual articulation of a complex concept along a horizontal axis from a general to a specific environmental issue. In this regard, the present study tried to catch both general and specific attitudes and the relationship between them. A vertical classification of environmental attitudes in the tourism domain from general to specific based on their effects on behavioural intentions and actions (Passafaro, 2020) was addressed, but only touched on in the study in the consideration of some specific behavioural attitudes in the coastal tourism domain and some general actual pro-environmental behaviours.

A further contribution of the study that could merit deeper investigation is the investigation of people’s values and their ecological worldviews as antecedents of young people’s attitudes, as in the study by Kement et al. (2023) that applied the value belief norm theory (Stern, 2000) to explain environmentally sensitive behaviour. In addition, the study offers some insights for integrating the KAB framework with other frameworks applied in the tourism sector, such as the theory of planned behaviour. Moreover, on the one hand, a deeper analysis of the relevance of people’s knowledge in orienting their attitudes and behaviour and, on the other hand, a refinement of the study to address the attitude–behaviour gap, could have enriched its contribution to this area in which the literature is non-conclusive.

Finally, the study supports research approaches that deepen generational cohort analysis instead of investigating phenomena at an aggregate level.

The above findings can help managers, planners and policy makers to customise strategies, tools and intervention measures so that they appropriately address different segments of people, change their behaviours and drive future trends in sustainable CMT.

From the point of view of destination managers, knowing the characteristics of members of Gen Z who support sustainable behaviour could be useful to decide on the most suitable actions to promote sustainable destinations, attract visitors and offer valuable experiences in this emerging tourism market. For those interested in environmentally-oriented activities, the educational aspect of travel and authentic experiences with nature in marine and coastal destinations are two opportunities that destination managers, travel planners and analysts could consider when they design and implement destination management strategies and plan and set up innovative solutions and business ideas for tourism product development.

Each cluster should be approached with a dedicated travel offer, leveraging on a sustainable tourism offer for those groups who are most sensitive, but also attracting, with further drivers, those who are indifferent or less sensitive to sustainable coastal and marine tourism topics. The socio-demographic profile of the youth segments, as well as the knowledge of what drives them to choose a destination and which activities they prefer, are prerequisites for understanding and profiling potential young customers and for addressing them with proper tools. Since social media and websites are important tools when Generation Z connect with and book a destination, knowing the specific profiles of individuals can help to optimise the design of sites and social media to improve the user experience and boost conversion rates. In particular, the profiles of the sustainability-oriented youth segments provide insights into the environmental content that is advised for websites and social media, for example through tools such as blogs, destination and live streaming videos, posts and podcasts, comments and reviews, hackathons and influencers (Franco et al., 2022); these groups are open to a sustainable tourism offer and give an opportunity to the sustainable tourism industry. However, those in other clusters seem far from being potential targets for sustainable tourism and may be more interested in service levels and facilities than in sustainability attractions.

The study’s findings highlight quite a low level of knowledge about some fundamental coastal and marine topics. In the framework of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and to better achieve the UN SDGs, such as Goals 12 and 14, governments should strengthen tourism education programmes and campaigns in order to increase people’s literacy and stimulate sustainable attitudes and civilised behaviours among young people. This finding has implications, above all, for educational, professional and training systems and for educational policies. Although people have more knowledge and education about the state of marine and coastal areas, the importance of their resources for the well-being of the planet and the many benefits that humans derive from them, our findings highlight that further efforts are needed. This must be done in order to guarantee the acquisition of a broader spectrum of knowledge and skills for all students, with interventions especially at compulsory school level in order to standardise the level of basic knowledge. Compulsory education, as well as upper secondary education and higher education, form the basis for the learning paths aimed at acquiring key skills that can help students in adulthood and in lifelong learning. As regards Italy, a “civic education” path has been incorporated at all levels of compulsory schooling since 2020, and includes various topics, with sustainable development among them, but this is only provided for 33 h every year, which may not be sufficient. Further opportunities to deepen young people’s environmental knowledge could come from the additional teaching that schools offer through their three-year training plan, and from the internship activities introduced to provide transversal and orientation skills that are needed to increase job opportunities and facilitate the choice of the subsequent course of study.

The results of the study regarding the cognitive, affective, and behavioural attitudes of young people have implications for the education system, but also for third sector organisations operating in the environmental field. The study results suggest that tools should be intensified and diversified to create an offer suited to the different attitudes of the participants, which could include volunteer camps and summer study trips related to the marine environment, and experiences that may act on the affective attitude, besides other components. In addition, citizen science projects and initiatives could be expanded to offer young people and educators the opportunity to work together with scientists in real-life contexts and to participate in pro-environmental behavioural experiences, which can develop cognitive and behavioural attitudes.

Additionally, policy actors, third sector organisations and destination managers should design thought-provoking content, especially for the web and social media, that may encourage young people to consider the serious damage caused by an individual’s uncivilised behaviour, as well as the contribution each single person may make to the preservation of the environmental status of marine and coastal areas for the future of tourism. On the one hand, understanding which sustainable actions individuals are less willing to adopt and which actions characterise environmentally unsustainable behaviour is a relevant starting point for setting up a strategic process aimed at changing such behaviour and reducing negative environmental impacts on marine resources and coastal destinations. On the other hand, actions that young people declare they are most disposed to take may leverage other pro-environmental actions and stimulate emulative behaviour on the part of other individuals.

The study provided substantial results although there are some limitations.

The sample includes a subgroup of Gen Z, comprising people born between 2003 and 2006, and does not include participants from the entire span of Generation Z. Future research could broaden the focus by considering individuals born within the entire time span included in the definition of Gen Z as well as other segments of the population. The sample includes individuals living in two Italian regions and four cities, so in future research the study could be replicated on a larger scale in order to generalise and compare the results. Anyway, and in agreement with Buffa (2015), the number of participants could make it possible to identify other characteristics which may contribute to the analysis of the youth profiles.

Finally, the framework of the analysis could be broadened from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, as discussed in the previous subsections. For example, other opinions and pro-environmental behaviours could be included, together with other constructs relating to the sustainability of coastal and marine environments.

Despite these limitations, the study gives an original contribution to the literature on generational cohorts and young people’s perspectives on sustainable coastal and marine tourism.

The results of the study offer insights in relation to the first research question on how sensitive today’s young generation, who will become adults by 2030, are to the issue of environmental protection and the sustainability of tourism in coastal and marine areas.

Young Italians are interested in the environmental quality of marine and coastal destinations, attach importance to the ecological value of ecosystems, and recognise the potential conflicts between environmental protection and the use of coastal and marine resources for tourism. On the other hand, they admit that they have limited knowledge of the issues under investigation and are not greatly inclined to adopt environmentally sustainable behaviours. The results of the cluster analysis reveal how today’s young people have very different profiles in terms of their knowledge of, and attitudes and behaviour towards, sustainable coastal and marine tourism, and in terms of individual characteristics.

The above topics and results have various implications for future tourism scenarios from different perspectives that can be linked to the status and the role of today’s youth in the near future.

In the short term, today’s Generation Z will see its educational path completed and will be about to enter the job market. If today they have knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that are favourable to sustainable tourism and they develop these further, this can stimulate the acquisition of skills that can make Generation Z competitive in entering the tourism labour market in its various sectors, both in subordinate positions and in the launch of initiatives and entrepreneurial projects aimed at increasing the sustainability of the tourism offer.

Today’s Generation Z, over the medium term, will acquire more income that they could spend as part of their growing demand for sustainable tourism goods and services, ranging from the choice of a location to travel preferences, accommodation, and on-site tourist activities. This demand could exert greater pressure and inspire differentiated strategies within the tourism industry, particularly strategies for sustainability, to the extent that the demands of young people – with their different segments – can be expressed and they can solicit targeted offers that are, more or less, oriented towards the environmental quality and sustainability of tourist destinations.

In addition to the role of responsible consumer, worker or producer, each member of today’s Generation Z will, in the short to medium term, acquire the full role of a citizen who, in addition to being the holder of certain rights, faces a series of duties and responsibilities and a system of rules with which they must comply. These rules set limits to individual freedom but are necessary for achieving peaceful coexistence within sustainable contexts of living and communities, for ensuring that everyone can express themselves, but also for managing the marine and coastal ecosystem in the best and most sustainable way in order to preserve all its functions, not least its future tourism value and use, over time.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author’s contributions: MBF: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Review and editing, Supervision, Review; MB: Investigation, Writing – original draft. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.