Environmental protection has gained significance in tourism literature. The sustainability of a destination’s environment depends on tourists' responsible behavior. This research aims to examine how self-congruity influences tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) using signaling theory. Additionally, perceived destination trust (PDT) is included as a mediator and destination social responsibility (DSR) is incorporated to explain the relationship between self-congruity and tourists' ERB.
One thousand tourists visiting five selected nature parks across various regions of Pakistan were approached using a multi-stage sampling technique. Out of these, 874 completed surveys were analyzed.
The study’s results indicated that actual and social self-congruence significantly affects tourists' ERB, while results were insignificant for ideal self-congruence. Mediation results showed significant results for actual and social self-congruence, while the result for ideal self-congruence is not significant. Finally, DSR has significantly moderated the relationship for actual and social self-congruence.
The study is among the few that consider tourists’ behavior in achieving a sustainable natural environment for a tourist destination. Theoretically, the study uniquely considers destination brand equity by explaining signaling theory to influence tourists’ ERB. Further study has several theoretical and managerial implications.
This study is one of the few that applies self-congruity theory to understand tourists’ ERB. Theoretically, it uniquely examines social, actual and ideal self-congruence in relation to the destination through the lens of signaling theory and its impact on tourists’ ERB. By including PDT as a mediator and DSR as a moderator in the framework, this research enhances the understanding of tourists’ ERB. Research has proposed a comprehensive framework for protecting the natural environment of destinations.
