Assessing the Contributing Factors to the Tourism Professionals’ Attitude and Willingness Towards Green Tourism

Environmental crises and the destruction of natural resources are the main problems faced by the tourism industry, whose treatment requires concerted efforts to change the needs and behaviors of tourists and to offer green products and services. In this regard, as tourism professionals play an important role in directing the market towards special styles and behaviors, especially environmentally friendly and sustainable behaviors, investigating the factors involved in shaping the attitude and tendency of such professionals to green tourism can help attract the attention of other beneficiaries to this field. The required data for this developmental/applied and descriptive/survey study was collected through a 31-item questionnaire administered to some 102 professionals in the tourism industry who were selected via purposive sampling. The data were then analyzed in the following two parts using the Structural Equation Modeling: 1) the measurement model to be used for examining the technical characteristics of the questionnaire and 2) the structural part to test the research hypotheses. The study’s findings indicated the direct positive influence of religiosity on collectivism, and the indirect effect of religiosity on other variables considered in the study. Moreover, while a positive correlation was found between collectivism, environmental concerns, environmental knowledge, and the tendency toward green tourism, no correlation was observed between religiosity and environmental knowledge, and between environmental knowledge and environmental concerns. Therefore, it is recommended that some courses be added to educational levels concerning how to protect the environment when traveling.