Linking Digital Travel Planning to Environmentally Responsible Behavior in Generation Z’s Special Forces-Style Tourism

Although Generation Z is often considered more environmentally conscious, the tight schedules, travel across multiple locations, and limited resources characteristic of special forces-style tourism may make environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) difficult to implement. Previous studies have been destination-specific or have conceptualized digital planning factors as predictors of pre-trip decisions, without investigating cross-stage applicability. This paper combines the Stimulus Organism Response framework and the Theory of Planned Behavior to investigate how destination image, social norms, and electronic word-of-mouth are related to ERB directly and indirectly through tourist engagement and perceived behavioral control where place identity is defined as a boundary condition. Survey data from 439 Chinese Generation Z tourists with prior experience of special forces-style tourism were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and observed-variable path analysis. Each of the three planning-stage inputs had positive direct relationships with ERB, as well as significant indirect relationships that acted via tourist engagement and perceived behavioral control. Place identity enhanced the electronic word-of-mouth–ERB and perceived behavioral control–ERB relationships. This paper makes three contributions; it develops a cross-stage conceptualization of ERB by connecting digital planning inputs to behavior in itinerary implementation, analytically disentangling psychological involvement and perceived behavioral feasibility, and recasting place identity as pathway-specific and not universal boundary condition.