Influencing eco-conscious travelers: The role of green marketing in promoting sustainable destinations

This study examines how green marketing communications by eco-friendly tourism providers influence tourists' intentions to visit sustainable destinations, considering the mediating roles of tourists' eco-friendly attitudes and green destination trust, as well as the moderating role of biospheric values. We adopted a cross-sectional survey of 317 tourists in China's Jiuzhaigou Valley and analyzed the data using SMART-PLS. The results show that green marketing activities significantly increase tourists' pro-environmental attitudes and trust in green destinations, which in turn enhance their intentions to visit eco-friendly destinations. Biospheric values amplified the effect of destination trust on visit intentions (stronger for tourists with high environmental values), although these values did not significantly alter the influence of eco-friendly attitudes on intentions. By applying customer engagement theory (CET), our study demonstrates that meaningful interactions through green marketing can foster value co-creation (in the form of positive attitudes and trust), leading to sustainable tourist behaviors. These findings contribute to the sustainable tourism literature and provide practical insights for destination marketers and policymakers on engaging eco-conscious travelers.