The role of involvement in enhancing tourist experiences: an empirical study of environmentally friendly accommodations

This research aims to disentangle the interrelationships among involvement and environmentally friendly accommodations experiences among tourists staying at environmentally friendly accommodations. It first conceptualizes the environmentally friendly accommodations via personal interviews and then constructs a measurement scale of the environmentally friendly accommodations experience, entailing three dimensions: (1) hedonism, (2) functionality, and (3) social responsibility. In the next research stage, a survey of 326 tourists at certified green accommodations assesses the environmentally friendly accommodations experience and two types of tourist involvement: cognitive-based and individual-state. Confirmatory factor analysis supports the three-dimensional scale, while structural equation modelling shows cognitive-based involvement affects hedonism and functionality, and individual-state involvement influences all three dimensions of the environmentally friendly accommodations experience. The findings are discussed through a cocreation lens, highlighting how active tourist participation shapes sustainable experiences.