From Co-Creation to Compassion: Unveiling the Emotional Pathway to Sustainable Tourism Behavior

This study examines how co-created tourism experiences foster sustainable tourism behavior through emotional and well-being mechanisms. Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework, broaden-and-build theory, and transformative tourism perspectives, the study proposes compassion for nature as a central emotional-moral mediator linking stage-specific co-creation to hedonic and eudaimonic well-being and, ultimately, sustainable behavior. Using PLS-SEM on survey data collected in Ho Chi Minh City, the results show that co-creation during and after the trip significantly enhances compassion for nature, whereas pre-trip co-creation does not. Sequential mediation analyses reveal a multi-step transformation pathway in which compassion stimulates hedonic well-being, facilitates eudaimonic well-being, and is associated with stronger future sustainability-oriented behavioral commitment. The findings advance emotion-centered and process-oriented explanations of sustainability in tourism.