Online Need Satisfaction and Tourists’ Environmental Responsible Behavior: The Bridging Role of Place Attributes and Place Persuasiveness

The pre-purchase information search process is one of the most critical and complex components of the consumer decision-making process. This is especially true for industries as competitive as the hospitality industry, where significant risks are associated with the products due to their experiential and intangible nature. It is still unclear which elements and online platforms components can elicit positive feelings toward a travel destination in the virtual environment. In addition, a key concern of tourism scholars and practitioners is how to limit the adverse effects of tourism on the environment. Therefore, this study examines how online search needs satisfaction impacts place features and tourists’ revisitation and environmentally responsible behavior in the destination. The research was operationalized using empirical data collected from 619 international tourists visiting Muscat in Oman. The results of Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) confirmed the multi-dimensionality of online need satisfaction and showed that online autonomy need satisfaction and online relatedness need satisfaction influenced place dependence; online competence need satisfaction, and online relatedness needs satisfaction impacted place identification; while place persuasiveness was influenced by only online relatedness need satisfaction, along with place dependence affected tourists’ environmental responsible behavior. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed, limitations provided, and future research directions suggested.