A moderator of destination social responsibility for tourists' pro-environmental behaviors in the VIP model

Tourists are important destination stakeholders who mainly impact sustainable nature-based tourism destinations. While destinations promote socially responsible programs to protect the environment, tourists' engagement in pro-environmental behaviors is different. This research examined a conceptual framework to investigate tourists' pro-environmental behaviors at an ecological destination through the lens of the Values-Identity-Personal norms (VIP) model and the concept of destination social responsibility (DSR) from economic, environmental, and social perspectives. Examination of the VIP model, with a sample of 433 visitors to a nature-based destination, revealed that tourists' biospheric values, environmental self-identity, and personal norms had significant progressive relationships in influencing pro-environmental behaviors. Furthermore, a latent moderated structural equation analysis revealed that the DSR, particularly the environmental dimension, had a negative moderating effect between personal norms and pro-environmental behaviors. This finding implies that the effect of personal norms on pro-environmental behavior decreases when environmental DSR increases. This result highlights a significant role of destination environmental responsibility in impacting tourists' proenvironmental behaviors. The integrated model enhanced the predictability of pro-environmental behaviors, extending a methodological approach that improved the ability to analyze moderation effects. The findings offer managerial strategies for developing effective DSR messages to promote tourists' pro-environmental activities.