Are Young People Ready to Have a Pro-Environmental Sustainable Behaviour as Tourists? An Investigation of Towel Reuse Intention

Tourism, one of the economic sectors that has experienced great development in recent decades and must face unexpected challenges related to the evolution of the global context, needs a sustainable approach to harmonise its effects and impact on the natural and social environment. The aim of this research was to investigate the pro-environmental behaviour of young tourists in hotels versus at home and the main influencing factors of behavioural intention to reuse towels in hotels. The primary data were collected using a survey that was applied to Romanian young people. Eight hypotheses were formulated and tested through paired samples t-tests, a correlation analysis and a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Our results showed the higher pro-environmental conduct of young guests at home than in hotels, both through their general behaviour regarding the reduction of resource consumption and through their specific behaviour of reusing towels. Our empirical findings also highlighted that tourists' behavioural intention to reuse towels was positively influenced by an eco-friendly attitude, pro-environmental past experiences and habits to reuse towels at home. In order to achieve sustainable tourism, hotel management should convince guests to bring their ecological habits with them, and educational institutions should use specific methods of raising awareness among young people about an environmentally friendly attitude.