FROM CLAIMS TO ACTIONS: HOW GREEN MARKETING SHAPES SUSTAINABLE TOURIST BEHAVIOUR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v24i43.2127Keywords:
Green Marketing, Sustainable Tourist Behaviour, Environmental Knowledge, Perceived Green Business Practices, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Social Practice TheoryAbstract
This study examines how green marketing influences sustainable tourist behaviour by identifying the mediating roles of perceived green business practices (PGBP) and environmental knowledge (EK). Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Social Practice Theory, survey data from 1,037 tourists in Langkawi, Malaysia were analysed using PROCESS Model 4 parallel mediation with HC3 heteroskedasticity-consistent standard errors and 5,000 bootstrap resamples. The direct effect of green marketing on sustainable tourist behaviour becomes non-significant once mediators are included, whereas indirect effects through PGBP and EK are both significant. PGBP represents the larger indirect pathway, while environmental knowledge provides a complementary mechanism by strengthening tourists’ ability to interpret sustainability cues and enact responsible practices. These findings suggest that aligning sustainability communication with verifiable green practices and embedding knowledge-building interventions throughout the tourist journey may help translate claims into action. Causal inference should be reserved for experimental or longitudinal designs.
Downloads
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211.
Alashiq, S., & Aljuhmani, H. Y. (2025). From sustainable tourism to social engagement: A value-belief-norm approach to the roles of environmental knowledge, eco-destination image, and biospheric value. Sustainability, 17(10), 4353. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17104353
Alhomaid, A. (2025). Building trust in sustainable journeys: The interplay between green marketing, green brand trust, and tourism purchase intentions. Sustainability, 17(18), 8464. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17188464
Bhagat, R., & Chauhan, V. (2021). Environmentally sustainable consumer behaviour: A study of tourists visiting Northern India. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Systems, 14(1).
Chang, W., Li, H., & Khan, W. A. (2025). Influencing eco-conscious travelers: The role of green marketing in promoting sustainable destinations. Acta Psychologica, 260, 105506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105506
Colasante, A., D'Adamo, I., De Massis, A., & Italiano, S. (2024). An exploratory study of stakeholder views on the sustainable development of mountain tourism. Sustainable Development, 32(4), 3722–3735. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2878
de Araújo, A. F., Andrés-Marques, I., & López Moreno, L. (2025). No planet-B attitudes: The main driver of Gen Z travelers’ willingness to pay for sustainable tourism destinations. Sustainability, 17(3), 847. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17030847
Dodds, R., & Holmes, M. R. (2025). Addressing the attitude behaviour perception gap—Multimethod sustainable tourist behaviour evaluation. Business Strategy and the Environment. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.70452
Elshaer, I. A., Kooli, C., & Azazz, A. M. (2025). From green culture to innovation: How internal marketing drives sustainable performance in hospitality. Administrative Sciences, 15(8), 286. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci15080286
Font, X., & McCabe, S. (2017). Sustainability and marketing in tourism and hospitality: An evolving agenda. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(7), 869–883. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2017.1301721
Gomes, S., & Lopes, J. M. (2023). Insights for pro-sustainable tourist behavior: The role of sustainable destination information and pro-sustainable tourist habits. Sustainability, 15(11), 8856. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118856
Grimmer, M., & Woolley, M. (2014). Green marketing messages and consumers’ purchase intentions: Promoting personal versus environmental benefits. Journal of Marketing Communications, 20(4), 231–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2012.684065
Hair, J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2014). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Sage.
Hair, J. F., Howard, M. C., & Nitzl, C. (2020). Assessing measurement model quality in PLS-SEM using confirmatory composite analysis. Journal of Business Research, 109, 101–110.
Han, H., Hsu, L.-T. J., & Sheu, C. (2010). Application of the theory of planned behavior to green hotel choice: Testing the effect of environmental friendly activities. Tourism Management, 31(3), 325–334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2009.03.013
Hanafiah, M. H., Patwary, A. K., Hussein, A. S., & Azwar, H. (2025). Glamorous green tourism: Exploring the intersection of green marketing practices and tourist planned behavior in glamping tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, 8(9), 3419–3439. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-10-2024-1088
Hayes, A. F. (2017). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Press.
Igartua, J.-J., & Hayes, A. F. (2021). Mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: Concepts, computations, and some common confusions. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 24, e49.
Jiang, S., Ratchavieng, A., Wang, H., Phakdeephirot, N., & OuYang, Y. (2025). Enhancing sustainable coffee tourism behavior among Y-generation via environment knowledge: Role of environmental value and awareness. International Journal of Customer Relationship Marketing and Management (IJCRMM), 16(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCRMM.389736
Leonidou, C. N., & Skarmeas, D. (2017). Gray shades of green: Causes and consequences of green scepticism. Journal of Business Ethics, 144(2), 401–415. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2829-4
Liu, A., Ma, E., Qu, H., & Ryan, B. (2020). Daily green behavior as an antecedent and a moderator for visitors’ pro-environmental behaviors. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 28(9), 1390–1408. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1741598
Martínez, P., Herrero, Á., & Gómez-López, R. (2019). Corporate images and customer behavioral intentions in an environmentally certified context: Promoting environmental sustainability in the hospitality industry. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26(6), 1382–1391. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1754
Mohd Esa, N. J., & Ismail, H. N. (2026). Exploring the challenges in developing equestrian tourism: A case study of Malaysia. Planning Malaysia, 24(40). https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v24i40.1974
Muna, N., Yasanta, I. K. R., & Retnasamy, V. (2025). Pathways to green purchase: Pro-environmental behavior and concern in Bali tourism. Tourism and Hospitality, 6(4), 208. https://doi.org/10.3390/tourhosp6040208
Nekmahmud, M., & Fekete-Farkas, M. (2020). Why not green marketing? Determinates of consumers’ intention to green purchase decision in a new developing nation. Sustainability, 12(19), 7880. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197880
Nguyen, T. H. H., Pilík, M., Thuy, V. T. N., & Pham, N. T. (2025). How do social media influencers and green knowledge sharing on social media promote tourists’ revisiting behavioural intentions? A time-lagged study. Global Business Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/09721509251349294
Olya, H. G. T., Bagheri, P., & Tümer, M. (2019). Decoding behavioural responses of green hotel guests: A deeper insight into the application of the theory of planned behaviour. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 31(6), 2509–2525. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-05-2018-0374
Peattie, K., & Crane, A. (2005). Green marketing: Legend, myth, farce, or prophesy? Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 8(4), 357–370. https://doi.org/10.1108/13522750510619733
Qiu, Z., Chen, S., Law, R., Zuo, Y., & Zhang, M. (2025). Enhancing green advertising: How emotional and rational appeals influence tourists’ pro-environmental intentions based on behavior types. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 63, 434–445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2025.05.016
Rijal, S., Taufiq, M., Ridwan, M., Machmury, A., & Azmadi, A. S. A. (2025). The economics vs sustainability in ecotourism sites planning and development: Lessons learned from the impact of lantebung mangrove forest ecotourism on the community's sustainable livelihood. Planning Malaysia, 23. https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v23i38.1778
Sharma, A. P. (2021). Consumers’ purchase behaviour and green marketing: A synthesis, review and agenda. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 45(6), 1217–1238. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcs.12722
Shimul, A. S., Faroque, A. R., Teah, K., & Teah, M. (2024). Enhancing consumers’ intention to stay in an eco-resort via climate change anxiety and connectedness to nature. Journal of Cleaner Production, 442, 141096. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141096
Shrivastava, P., & Gautam, V. (2024). Examining patronage intentions of customers: A case of green hotels. Frontiers in Sustainable Tourism, 3, 1429472. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsut.2024.1429472
Shove, E., Pantzar, M., & Watson, M. (2012). The dynamics of social practice: Everyday life and how it changes. Sage.
Škatarić, G., Vlahović, B., Užar, D., Spalevic, V., & Novićević, R. (2021). The influence of green marketing on consumer environmental awareness. Poljoprivreda i Sumarstvo, 67(2), 21–36.
Thongmun, S., Soonsan, N., & Thai, N. T. (2025). The best of both worlds: Can smart hotels promote guests’ sustainable behaviours? Anatolia, 36(3), 618–633. https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2025.2458837
Vicente, J. M. (2024). Green tourist behavior analysis and its relationship with the choice of eco-tourism destination: An empirical study. International Journal of Geoheritage and Parks, 12(4), 544–557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgeop.2024.11.003
Yadav, R., & Pathak, G. S. (2017). Determinants of consumers’ green purchase behaviour in a developing nation: Applying and extending the theory of planned behaviour. Ecological Economics, 134, 114–122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.12.019
Yildiz, H., Tahali, S., & Trichina, E. (2024). The adoption of the green label by SMEs in the hotel sector: A leverage for reassuring their customers. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 37(5), 1627–1657. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-03-2023-0160
Yu, T. Y., Liu, C. H., Horng, J. S., Chou, S. F., Ng, Y. L., & Lin, J. Y. (2025). Integrating the critical concepts of sustainability to predict sustainable behavior–The moderating role of information seeking. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 43(7), 1366–1395. https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-03-2023-0128
Zhao, J., Omar, S. I., Liu, H., & Wen, Q. (2025). Examining the effects of perceived value on behavioral intention of green tourists in Hulunbuir Grassland, China. Planning Malaysia, 23(37). https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v23i36.1752
Zheng, Q. J., Xu, A. X., Kong, D. Y., Deng, H. P., & Lin, Q. Q. (2018). Correlation between the environmental knowledge, environmental attitude, and behavioral intention of tourists for ecotourism in China. Applied Ecology & Environmental Research, 16(1).
Zheng, S., Han, J., Gandolfi, F., Alturise, F., & Alkhalaf, S. (2025). Fostering eco-conscious tourists: How sustainable marketing drives green consumption behaviors. Acta Psychologica, 255, 104900.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright & Creative Commons Licence
eISSN: 0128-0945 © Year. The Authors. Published for Malaysian Institute of Planners. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.
The authors hold the copyright without restrictions and also retain publishing rights without restrictions.
