The Power of Perception: How Environmental Quality and Eco-Friendly Reputation of the Destination Drive Tourists' Environmentally Responsible Behaviors? An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The current study aimed to explore how the environmental quality and environmentally friendly reputation of Imam Hassan City motivate environmentally responsible behavior among visitors to Imam Hassan City, within an embedded model of the impact of visitors' environmental commitment. With a purposive sample of (95) Iraqi visitors, the data were analyzed and hypotheses tested using structural equation modeling using the partial least squares (PLS-SEM) modeling method using the SmartPLS.4 software package. The study results showed that environmental quality and environmentally friendly reputation have a positive and significant impact on increasing visitors' environmental commitment. The study also concluded that environmental commitment has a positive and significant impact on motivating visitors' environmentally responsible behavior. The study also presented a set of recommendations, the most prominent of which are:

The importance of enhancing community awareness and commitment to sustainable tourism by implementing integrated tourism activities with environmental awareness and education initiatives to stimulate environmental behavior among visitors, prioritizing improving the image of Imam Hassan City and implementing environmentally sustainable practices and measures, in addition to the importance of intensifying public relations and marketing campaigns to manage the environmentally friendly reputation of Imam Hassan City.