Reconnecting Adults with Nature: Children as Relational Catalysts of Ecological Sustainability Consciousness

This conceptual paper develops the Ecological Inner Child Sustainability Loop (E-ICSL) to explain how ecological sustainability consciousness may emerge through intergenerational encounters with nature in tourism contexts. Rather than positioning children as formal agents of sustainable development, it conceptualizes them as informal relational catalysts whose play, wonder, imagination, sensory openness, and affective attunement may invite adults to reconsider their own relationship with the natural world. Drawing on theory synthesis and model-building, the paper integrates research on children in tourism, ecological sustainability, phenomenology, and intergenerational learning. Theoretically, it reframes ecological sustainability as relational consciousness and extends children-in-tourism research from empowerment to intergenerational reconnection. Practically, it offers a framework for designing family-based tourism experiences that support reflective ecological learning. The findings invite broader inquiry into how children's nature engagement may reshape adult reflection, family sustainability practices, and human-nature relations in tourism.