Research on the Impact of Moral Gaze on Tourists' Environmentally Responsible Behavior

Tourists construct and consume tourist destinations through the tourist gaze. Simultaneously, their behaviors are exposed to the gaze of bystanders, whose “moral” gaze can be transformed into silent comments that condemn or praise, placing tourists under invisible moral surveillance and regulating their behaviors. This paper attempts to study the influence of moral gaze on tourists’ environmental responsibility behavior by initiating an experiment. The findings reveal that tourists’ self-consciousness is awakened after being influenced by moral gaze, and their perception of social norms is improved. The mechanism of reputation management and normative activation prompts tourists to consciously modify their own behavior. Through this study, it is hoped that the findings will contribute to the formulation of ecological management policies in tourism destinations.