Vacationers' norm-based behavior in developing environmentally sustainable cruise tourism

Abstract

The cruise industry has faced the greening issue. The present research was designed to explicate cruise travelers' decision formation for choosing an environmentally responsible cruise product rather than a conventional cruise. To achieve the research purpose, we employed a norm activation theory (NAT) and extended it by including social norms and anticipated feelings. An online survey was used as survey methodology. The validated measures in the previous studies were used. Results of the measurement model assessment revealed that the utilized measures contained a satisfactory level of reliability and validity. Findings from the modeling comparison showed that the proposed extended model included a better ability to predict passengers' pro-environmental intentions than the original NAT. Our findings further indicated that personal norm and ascribed responsibility played a crucial mediating role; and personal norm has the greatest criticality in the process of generating passengers' intentions for selecting an environmentally responsible cruise. In sum, our objectives were sufficiently obtained. Our findings provided tourism researchers and cruise practitioners with a sufficient understanding of passengers' ecofriendly decision-making process related to a cruise product.