STUDY ON GREEN TOURISM CONSUMPTIONS OF CHINESE
TOURIST WITH DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT PERCEPTION
Gu Hui-min, Gao Jinging, Guo Fan and Li Shan
Beijing International Studies University, 100024, Beijing, China
Keywords: Environment perceptions, Green tourism consumption, NEP, Chinese tourist.
Abstract: This study measures the environmental attitudes of Chinese tourists by "New Environmental Paradigm
"(NEP) Scale, then investigate the relationship between the tourists' environmental attitudes and green
tourism consumption behavior. This paper classifies Chinese tourists into three categories: the harmonious
activists, the anthropocentrism and the ecocentrism, The results indicate that tourists holding different
environmental attitudes show significant difference in certain basic statistical variables and fulfillment
degree of green tourism behavior. There is a contradiction between the environmental attitude and green
tourism behavior of the anthropocentrism.
1 INTRODUCTION
Today, the media are increasingly direct in
informing the public about the effects of global
warming. (Lee et al., 2010) However, the scientific
and technological advancement is playing a much
less important role in reducing energy consumption
and greenhouse gas emission (Nawjin and Peeters,
2010), which means people need to change their
behavior to achieve this, thereby realize sustainable
development.
The tourism industry influences the global
climate and environment through the energy
consumption and greenhouse gas emission of
transportation, accommodation, tourist activity, etc.
The strong growth of total (unchecked) tourism
emissions within about 50 years from now will
exceed the 100% share of sustainable global
emissions (Bows et al., 2009). Human need to adopt
sustainable tourism style to remit the influence on
the climate. National Tourism Administration of
China also regards the energy saving, environmental
protection and green tourism consumption as an
important goal in “the twelfth five-year” tourism
plan (National Tourism Administration of China,
2010). The development of green tourism needs not
only the effort of government, enterprises and
related organizations, but also the activate
participation and corporation of the tourists. The
tourists can bring the enterprises stress and
motivation to develop green tourism, meanwhile
supervise the government and the tourism
management department, and promote the
development of green tourism positively. This paper
studies the tourists’ environmental attitudes and
green tourism consumption behavior, as well as the
interrelationship between them, trying to make a
contribution to the green tourism development.
2 REVIEWS
In the late 1970s, the World Tourism Organization
established a committee focused on the environment,
while somewhat later in 1992 the sustainable
development of tourism was directly addressed by
the Rio Earth Summit (Bohdanowicz, 2006),which
marks the beginning of a new era of “protecting
environment, respecting nature and promoting
sustainable development”. The green tourists started
to show up in early 1990s. (Kirkpatrick, 1990)The
tourism industry began incorporating
environmentally responsible or green innovations
into their businesses (Kathleen, 2009). In 2010,
UNWTO published a report of ‘Toward low-carbon
tourism’ collaborating with other international
organizations. Tourism industry starts to catch the
attention of public as a competitive industry of low-
carbon economy, energy saving and emission
reduction.
Green tourism claims can be used to signal that
tourism operations taking place in that area do not
457
Hui-min G., Jinging G., Fan G. and Shan L..
STUDY ON GREEN TOURISM CONSUMPTIONS OF CHINESE TOURIST WITH DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT PERCEPTION.
DOI: 10.5220/0003583904570468
In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (SSTS-2011), pages 457-468
ISBN: 978-989-8425-53-9
Copyright
c
 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

harm the environment.(Font and John Tribe, 2001).
However, the ‘involuntary green travel’ was defined
as reduced CO
2
emission travel imposed by
government regulations (Nawjin and Peeters, 2010).
Many researchers study the green tourism
production in different perspectives. There’s a
obvious positive relationship between corporate
social responsibility and financial performance.
(Margolis and Walsh, 2001) Pontus Cerin (2003)
noted that the enterprises actively engaging in the
discussion of environmental protection claim that
they get added value _brand_from social
identity.The objectives of sustainable development
must be a part of the overall destination
development strategy, the purpose of which is to
achieve the highest socioeconomic impact on the
local community and to optimize the quality of life
of the local population, and its current and future
generations. GRAČAN etc. (2010) indicates that the
expenditure saving from energy saving and emission
reduction becomes the income of enterprise,
meanwhile makes profit for environment and society.
Gössling (2001) etc. studies on the energy
consumption and CO
2
emission of tourism activities.
Large numbers of literatures studies on two
aspects: the destruction of tourism on natural
resources(Gössling, 1999;Vail and Hultkrantz, 2000)
and the measure of protecting environment and
reducing the adverse environmental impact of
tourism during tourism development (Davis et al.,
2001; Page, 2002).Some researchers studied on the
environmental guidelines, certification system, the
"best practice" and policy formulation and
implementation for tourism development.
(Bohdanowicz, 2006; Judith, 2010). Other
researchers studied on the environmental
responsibility of tourism business managers, owners
and employees and tourists’ awareness and behavior
toward green tourism. (Bohdanowicz, 2006;
Kathleen, 2009).
However, there’s seldom any researches studying
on the relationship between environmental attitude
and green tourism behavior. (Wang et al.,2010; Luo,
Wu, Deng, 2009; Chien-Wen and Chien-Pei, 2008).
On the domain of tourism, Formica and Uysal (2002)
has encouraged researchers to combine environment
attitudes with tourism research, because people’s
attitude toward the use of nature and resource will
affect the decision-making process of destination.
There are other researchers studying on the impact
of the green attitudes and the production of certain
groups. (Gu, Chris and Kaye, 2009) This paper
studies on the difference of green tourism
consumption behavior among tourists holding
different environmental attitude, in order to
contribute to the development of green tourism.
3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
AND ASSUMPTIONS
3.1 Environmental Attitudes and
Green Tourism Consumption
Behaviour
Environmental attitude is a tendency that people
incline to protect the environment in a relatively
sustainable and organized way, which is acted in the
name of environment protection and should be
noticed and concerned. Essentially speaking, the
environmental crisis results from the adverse
environmental behavior. The theory of reasoned
action and the theory of planned behavior claim that
the best way to predict people’s behavior is to
comprehend their behavioral intention. Moreover,
the behavioral intention has three influence factors:
behavioral attitude, subjective norm and perceived
behavioral control, codetermining behavioral
intention and behavior. (Yu, Wang and Yang, 2000)
According to these theories, and in consideration
that previous study indicates environmental attitude
and green behavior has certain positive correlation
(Luo, et al. 2009; Chien-Wen and Chien-Pei, 2008),
this paper proposes this hypothesis:
H1: Environmental attitude has positive
influence on green tourism consumption behavior.
3.2 Anthropocentrism, Ecocentrism
and Green Tourism Consumption
Behaviour
Values play an important role in individual
consumers’ behavior, attitude and decision-making,
which can enhance the tourists’ understanding to
green tourism product and behavior, induce the
tourists’ demand and desire to green tourism
consumption, thus promote green tourism
consumption behavior. As two kinds of incompatible
environmental values, the anthropocentrists
emphasize human’s subjective initiative, whereas
the ecocentrists claim that human exist as part of the
nature.
The anthropocentrists regard themselves as the
central and most significant entities in the universe,
asserting that the whole interests and long-term
benefits of human being are the starting and terminal
point of handling the man-nature relationship and
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conducting ecological practical activities. (Yan,
2006) The anthropocentrists are divided into the
absolute anthropocentrism and the relative
anthropocentrism. The former have a unilaterally
cognitive exaggeration on human’s subjective
initiative, while the latter respect the absoluteness of
human’s survival development right, admit the
preexistence of nature and finiteness of
environmental bearing capacity and natural
resources, and pursue the harmonious coexistence,
common development and sustainable development
of human and nature (Yang Guangsheng, 2010).
This paper name the people who advocate absolute
anthropocentrism as “the anthropocentrists” and
name the people who advocate relative
anthropocentrism as “the harmonious activists”. The
green tourism behavior is the tourism activities
process that cannot destroy the natural environment
and should save resources and energy as possible.
Thus it is clear that the view which is advocated by
the harmonious activists is close to the green tourism
consumption behavior.
The ecocentrists regard themselves and the
nature equally, or regard human as the outcome of
natural evolution. Human exist as part of nature and
cannot survive without nature. Thus human should
coexist harmoniously and develop commonly. (Chen
and Yang, 2001) Now, on the basis of accepting
biological evolution, species and ecosystem, the
ecocentrists have transferred their attention from
individual to the construction of nature and
environment matrix. Various of species can find
their own position in this matrix. This harmony and
unity of human and nature are exactly the basis f
green tourism behavior. Accordingly, we propose
hypotheses as follow:
H2: Tourists hold different environmental values
have different green tourism consumption behavior.
H2a: The anthropocentrists are not inclined to
green tourism consumption.
H2b: The harmonious activists are inclined to
green tourism consumption.
H2c: The ecocentrists are inclined to green
tourism consumption.
3.3 Athropocentrists, Eocentrists
and Environmental Attitude
Environmental values has an impact on the whole
inside system of individuals and influence the
formation of certain attitude and behavior. The
environmental values and environmental attitude
cannot replace each other. But previous study has
indicated that individual values and environmental
attitude are positively correlated (Wang et al., 2010).
Other researchers dividing tourists into different
environmental value types according to their
environmental attitudes, e.g. eco-centrists, anthropo-
centrists and equivocators. (Luo et al., 2009) Thus,
we propose this hypothesis:
H3: The tourists can be divided into different
types according to the environmental attitude.
On the basis of these hypotheses, we can
conclude the basic theoretical framework of this
study (figure 1). As illustrated in the figure, this
study divided tourists holding different types of
environmental attitude into three types according to
the relationship between environmental values and
environmental attitude, then testify the relationship
between environmental attitude and green tourism
behavior through the discrepancy in green tourism
consumption among these three types.
Figure 1: The Relational Model between Environmental
Attitudes and Green Tourism Consumption Behavior.
4 RESEARCH METHOD
4.1 Questionnaire Design
This paper studies on the relationship between
environmental attitude and green tourism behavior
by questionnaires which refer to New Environmental
Paradigm (NEP) and combine with Chinese actual
tourism conditions. The respondents are anonymous
because personal environmental attitude is sensitive
topic to some extent and they might not be reluctant
H1
H2b
H2c
Ecocentrist
H3
H2a
Environmental
attitudes
Harmonious
activists
Green tourism consumption behaviour
Athropocentrist
STUDY ON GREEN TOURISM CONSUMPTIONS OF CHINESE TOURIST WITH DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT
PERCEPTION
459

to state their opinions if they need to sign their
names.
4.1.1 Environmental Attitude Scale
The NEP is the most influential and common used
environmental attitude scale. The major viewpoints
of NEP world view include that: the earth's
resources and economic growth has its limits; the
solution to environmental problems is not absolutely
dependent on technology; care about children's
living environment and recognize the value of
nature’s existence. (Zeng, 2004)
This study measures tourists’ environmental
attitudes by NEP Scale modified by Dunlap in 1992.
The respondents are required to mark the
corresponding answers of strongly agree, relatively
agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree,
relatively disagree or strongly disagree. In table 1,
the odd number questions are positively narrated and
scored 1-7, which means higher scores indicate more
tendency to NEP. On the contrary, the even number
questions are narrated reversed and scored 7-1,
which means lower scores indicate more tendency to
NEP.
4.1.2 Green Tourism Consumption
Behavior Scale
Green tourism consumption is a pattern of
consumption in which people respect environmental
ethics, focus on the protection of tourism resources
and environment, conserve resources and energy
maximally while pursuing the highest satisfaction in
travel. Green tourists use tourism resources
rationally and protect the ecological environment
and socio culture in a socially and environmentally
responsible manner. (Tourism Times, 2007) In terms
of Chinese actual situation, taking into account the
differentiation of Chinese tourists’ civilization level,
all kinds of green tourism promise in our country,
civilized travel guide and related research(Chien-
Wen and Chien-Pei, 2008; Toronto green tourism
association; SHAN SHUI Conservation Center),we
designed “green tourism consumption behavior
scale”, trying to cover all elements of tourism. The
respondents are required to mark the corresponding
answers of strongly agree, relatively agree, agree,
neither agree nor disagree, disagree, relatively
disagree or strongly disagree.
Then, we do a pre-survey of more than 50
samples, and delete some unreasonable elements and
add some elements meanwhile. Later 10 experts are
invited to grade the adjusted questionnaire, in order
to make sure the rationality of the questionnaire’s
index.
We adopt factor analysis to analyze the
environmental attitude and green tourism consumer
behavior. a) Extract the elements whose eigenvalues
are greater than 1 through the method of principal
component analysis and varimax orthogonal rotation,
and remove variables whose load is less than 0.40
and common factor variance is less than 0.35; b)
Classify the tourists by the scores of environmental
attitude through K-Means Q cluster analysis; c)
Compare the green tourism consumer behavior
discrepancies among tourists holding different
environmental attitude through ANOVA.
The Cronbach’s a of environmental attitude part
is 0.693. But variable 12 is excluded because its
Cronbach’s a is 0.256 and the reliability is very low.
The Cronbach’s a of environmental attitude part
increases to 0.705. The Cronbach’s a of green
tourism consumer behavior part is 0.875. Both of
them meet the reliability requirements.
4.2 The Implementation of the
Questionnaire Survey
The survey was implemented by the graduates of
Beijing International Studies University. They were
trained before the formal survey. Investigators
carried the survey in major tourist attractions and
hubs in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuxi, Suzhou, Nanjing,
Guangzhou and other cities on November 3rd to 8th,
2010. 1156 questionnaires were handed out and after
excluding the disqualified questionnaires (more than
50% missing values or answered regularly), we
obtained 871 valid questionnaires. The effective rate
was 75.35%.
5 DATA ANALYSIS
5.1 Sample Profiles
The basic statistics of the sample are shown in table
1.52.7% of respondents are male; most respondents
are young people aged between 19-35 (82.6%); the
number of respondents in average income level or
above accounts for 63.4 %; the workers and students
are most(57.9% and 28.6% respectively); among
workers, the senior managers, junior managers and
employees account for 20.5%, 30.8%, 48.6%
respectively; the respondents who have bachelor’s
degree or above are most (66.5%); 48.4% of the
respondents travel 2-5 times per year, then 44.4%
travel once a year; more than half of the respondents
travel at their own expense (55.6%).
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Table 1: Basic statistical characteristics of Sample.
Frequency Percentage Cumulative Percentage
Gender
Male 422 52.7 52.7
Female 379 47.3 100.0
Age
18 and under 15 1.8 1.8
19-25 453 53.2 55.0
26-35 250 29.4 84.4
36-45 57 6.7 91.1
46-50 36 4.2 95.3
51-55 22 2.6 97.9
56 and above 18 2.1 100.0
Income
Few 200 24.8 24.8
Below Average Level 87 10.8 35.5
At Average Level 378 46.8 82.3
Above Average Level 134 16.6 98.9
Far above average level 9 1.1 100.0
Employment
Employed 488 57.9 57.9
Unemployed 12 1.4 59.3
Student 241 28.6 87.9
Armyman 23 2.7 90.6
Home stays 36 4.3 94.9
Others 43 5.1 100.0
Employers’
Position
Senior managers 106 20.5 20.5
Primary managers 159 30.8 51.4
Grassroots employees 251 48.6 100.0
Education
Background
Junior middle school and the following 41 4.9 4.9
Technical secondary school
/high school
76 9.0 13.9
(college for) professional training 166 19.7 33.6
regular college 428 50.8 84.3
Graduate and above 132 15.7 100.0
Annual Travel
Frequency
once 352 44.4 44.4
2-5 times 383 48.4 92.8
Above 5 times 57 7.2 100.0
Payment Method
facility trip 190 22.3 22.3
All-expense tour 474 55.6 77.9
Both of above 188 22.1 100.0
STUDY ON GREEN TOURISM CONSUMPTIONS OF CHINESE TOURIST WITH DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT
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5.2 Tourists’ Classification based on
Environmental Attitude
5.2.1 Factor Analysis
We analyze the remaining 14 variables through the
method of principal component analysis and
varimax orthogonal rotation. The χ
2
value of Bartlett
test of sphericity is 2703.340 (df = 91, p = 0.000)
and the value of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin is 0.839,
indicating that the variables are suitable for factor
analysis. Through analysis, we find the common
factor variance of variable No.1 is 0.305,less than
0.35, so we exclude it. Then we analyze the
remaining 14 variables through the same
method.(Table 2). The χ
2
value of Bartlett test of
sphericity is 2577.308 (df=78 ， p=0.000) and the
value of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin is 0.836, indicating
that the variables are suitable for factor analysis.
Three factors are extracted finally, whose
characteristic roots, variance and cumulative
variance contribution rate are shown in table 2.
According to the general character of the variables,
we name these three factors as human almighty,
natural limitation and ecological crisis.
5.2.2 Tourists Cluster Analysis based on
Environmental Attitudes
We analyze all tourists through Q-type cluster
analysis according to the tourists’ scores in every
environmental attitude factor. After series of trial
runs by K-Means clustering method, we cluster the
tourists into 3 groups. ANOVA indicates that 3
groups have significant variation in 3 factors (Table
3).
Scheffe post hoc test results showed that the 3
groups have significant variation in each factors.
The average score of 3groups in each environmental
factor are shown in Table 4. It should be noted that
the factor of “human almighty” is adversely narrated,
which means higher scores indicate less tendency to
NEP’s world view. The other two factors are
positively narrated, which means higher scores
indicate more tendency to NEP’s world view.
The tourists in type 1 support the viewpoint of
“human almighty” and “natural limitation” and do
not support the "ecological crisis ". This group of
tourists has realized that the Earth has limits to
growth, respected the absoluteness of human’s
survival development right and pursued the
harmonious coexistence, common and sustainable
development of human and nature. The paper names
this group of tourists as “the harmonious activists”
according to the former analysis in theoretical
framework. There are 152 tourists in this group,
accounting for 17.0%. The results of cross-analysis
(Table 5) show that female tourists are more than
male (53.5%> 46.5%) and tourists in this group take
a smaller proportion in every basic demographic
characteristic (less than 30%).
The tourists in type 2 support the viewpoint of
“human almighty”. They regard human as the
central even the most significant entities in the
universe, while denying the ecological crisis and
holding neutral attitude toward the finiteness of
natural resources. They have a unilaterally cognitive
exaggeration on human’s subjective initiative and
their environmental attitudes are inclined to the
anthropocentrism, so they can be named as “the
anthropocentrists”. There are 354 tourists in this
group, accounting for 40.6%. The results of cross-
analysis (Table 5) show that male tourists are more
than female (59.9%>40.1%) ; the majority of this
group are below 18 or above 36 (more than 40%);
the income gap is great ;the employment status are
mainly employed, unemployed and others which
accounts for more than 40% prospectively and the
majority of employed are managers; the discrepancy
in education background is great; travel frequently
and the tourists who travel more than 5 times per
year account for 45.6%; the majority are facility
tourists (more than 50%).
The tourists in type 3 have not realized the limitation
of nature and not take the bearing capacity of Earth
seriously. They also denied “human almighty” and
admitted “ecological crisis”. Their environmental
attitudes are inclined to the ecocentrism, so they can
be named as “the ecocentrists”. There are 365
tourists in this group, accounting for 42.4%. The
results of cross-analysis (Table 5) show that the
number of male tourists are as large as that of female
(differ only 3.6%);the majority of this group are in
age of 19_35; their income level is low ;there’s not
obvious discrepancy in the employment position; the
level of education is high (the education background
of undergraduate or above account for more than
40%); travel frequently is lower than type 2; the
majority are all-expense tourists.
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Table 2: Factor Loading Matrix of Tourists Environmental Attitude.
Factors
Components
Communality
Variance
1 2 3
Factors 1:human almighty
14. 14.Humans will learn enough about how nature works to be
able to control it.
0.773 -0.065 -0.098 0.611
8.The balance nature is strong enough to cope with the impacts
of modern industrial nations.
0.730 -0.187 -0.053 0.571
4、Human ingenuity will insure that we do not make the earth
unlivable.
0.711 -0.090 0.126 0.529
6.The earth has plenty of natural resources if we just learn how
to develop them.
0.655 0.113 -0.050 0.444
2.Humans have the right to change nature to fit their needs. 0.649 -0.133 0.070 0.444
10.The so-called ecological crisis facing humankind bas been
greatly exaggerated.
0.563 -0.167 -0.367 0.480
Factors 2: natural limitation
11.The earth is like a spaceship with very limited room and
resource.
-0.051 0.753 0.012 0.570
13.The balance of nature is very delicate and easily upset. -0.030 0.706 0.245 0.559
7.Plants and animals have as much right as humans to exist. -0.086 0.668 0.289 0.537
9.Despite our special abilities, humans are still subject to the
laws of nature.
-0.224 0.660 0.214 0.532
Factors 3: ecological crisis
3.When humans interfere with nature, it often produces
disastrous consequences.
0.002 0.098 0.820 0.682
5.Humans are seriously abusing the environment. 0.033 0.250 0.741 0.613
15.If things continue on their present course, we will soon
experience a catastrophe.
-0.089 0.339 0.533 0.407
Eigen value 2.873 2.239 1.863
Variance explained % 25.101 20.221 17.334
Cumulative variance explained % 25.101 45.322 62.657
The number of variables contained by Each factor 6 4 3
Cronbach’s a 0.777 0.723 0.702
Note: 1) through sorting "analysis results" get data. 2) extraction method: principal component. Rotating methods: Varimax
with Kaiser standardization. Convergence after five iterations.
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5.3 The Discrepancy in Green Tourism
Consumption behavior Among
Different Types of Tourists
This paper analyzes the discrepancy in green
tourism consumption behavior among different types
of tourists through ANOVA analysis(a=0.05). First,
we exclude the variables which do not meet the
precondition of ANOVA(p≤0.05) through
homogeneity test of variances. Then we analyze the
remaining variables for the types of tourists’
environmental attitude through ANOVA analysis
(table 6). The bolded figures are the F-test results
whose significance is less than 0.05, which indicates
that there’s significant discrepancies in green
tourism consumption behavior among different types
of tourists.
As we can see from table 6, there’s significant
discrepancies in 15 variables of the 3 groups of
tourists, which proves the hypothesis 1 and 2.
Scheffe post hoc test results showed that the
fulfillment level of the anthropocentrists is much
higher than the ecocentrists in the question of “I
would choose the scenic spots, travel agencies,
hotels and travel guides which provide
environmental information”. The fulfillment level of
the anthropocentrists is much higher than the
ecocentrists and the harmonious activists in the
question of “I would estimate my carbon emissions
and try to choose low-carbon travel”. And the
fulfilment level of the ecocentrists is much higher
than the anthropocentrists in the question of “I
would prepare travel belongings to reduce the
variety and quantity of purchase on the way”
(P<0.05).
In addition, from the mean value we can see that
although the anthropocentrists hold a negative
attitude toward the limitation of nature and the
urgency of ecological crisis, they still are inclined to
fulfill various kinds of green tourism consumption
behavior (the mean values of positive questions are
above 4 and that of negative questions are below 4).
The ecocentrists are the most active practioners,
their fulfillment level is relatively higher in 10
questions. And the scores of harmonious activists
ranked the second in 12 questions, which illustrates
the harmonious activists are tend to travel green
actively. The analysis above proves the hypothesis
2a and 2b are true, but the hypothesis 2c is false.
6 CONCLUSIONS
We can draw the conclusions as follows:
1. According to the discrepancy in environmental
attitudes, this paper classified tourists into three
categories: the harmonious activists, the
anthropocentrists and the ecocentrists. The
harmonious activists pursue the harmonious
coexistence, common and sustainable development
of human and nature; the anthropocentrists have a
unilaterally cognitive exaggeration on human’s
subjective initiative; the ecocentrists respect the
ecological environment and care about ecological
crisis.
2. The tourists holding different environmental
attitudes show significant differences in certain basic
statistical variables. In this study, we found there are
no significant differences in income, employment,
position and travel frequency, but there’s notable
discrepancies in gender, age, education background
and payment. Male tourists are more inclined to
anthropocentrism than female; the middle-aged and
older tourists are more inclined to anthropocentrism
than the youngsters; the higher educated, the easier
the formation of ecological ethics; the more they
expend on their own, the more tendency to the
ecocentrism. The tourists will attach more
importance to green tourism consumption with the
enhancement of Chinese educational level and the
growth of young tourists.
3. There are significant differences in fulfillment
level of green tourism behavior among the tourists
holding different environmental attitudes. The
ecocentrists are the most active practioners in green
tourism behavior, then the harmonious activists are
following. Thus, H2b and H2c are proved. It is
notable that the fulfillment level of the
anthropocentrists even exceeds that of the
ecocentrists, such as choosing the travel agencies
which provide environmental information.
4. The anthropocentrists advocate “human
almighty” and deny “ecological crisis”, but they also
tend to practice various kinds of green tourism
consumption behavior, which disproves the
hypothesis 2a. This conclusion is contrary to the
thoughts that personal attitude to the use of resource
will influence his decision-making process, which
illustrates the fulfillment level of green tourism
behavior might be influenced by other factors. These
reasons are worth further studying.
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Table 3: The analysis of variance between categories (AVOVA).
Cluster Error
F Sig.
Mean Square df Mean Square df
human almighty 791.235 2 1.565 868 505.579 .000
natural limitation 413.443 2 1.675 868 246.769 .000
ecological crisis 777.593 2 1.428 868 544.562 .000
Table 4: The mean score on various environmental factors of all kinds of tourists.
harmonious activists
(N=152)
anthropocentrists
(N=354)
ecocentrists (N=365)
human almighty 5.992 6.092 4.054
natural limitation 5.974 3.669 3.250
ecological crisis 1.190 2.933 4.820
Table 5: Different types of tourists' basic statistical characteristics (1).
Types of tourists(%)
harmonious
activists
anthropocentrists
ecocentrists
Gender
Male 46.5 59.9 48.2
Female 53.5 40.1 51.8
Age
18 and under 20.0 53.3 26.7
19-25 17.4 38.2 44.4
26-35 16.8 39.6 43.6
36-45 22.8 47.4 29.8
46-50 11.1 52.8 36.1
51-55 22.7 40.9 36.4
56 and above 11.1 80.0 10.0
Income
Few 20.0 35.5 44.5
Below Average Level 13.8 48.3 37.9
At Average Level 17.2 39.7 43.1
Above Average Level 18.7 47.8 33.6
Far above average level 0.0 66.7 33.3
Employment
Employed 16.8 42.6 40.6
Unemployed 16.7 25.0 58.3
Student 20.3 36.1 43.6
Armyman 17.4 34.8 47.8
Home stays 11.1 52.8 36.1
STUDY ON GREEN TOURISM CONSUMPTIONS OF CHINESE TOURIST WITH DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT
PERCEPTION
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Table 5: Different types of tourists' basic statistical characteristics (2).
Types of tourists(%)
harmonious
activists
anthropocentrists
ecocentrists
Employment Others 16.3 48.8 34.9
Employers’
Position
Senior managers 15.1 44.3 40.6
Primary managers 15.7 47.8 36.5
Grassroots employees 17.5 39.0 43.4
Education
Background
Junior middle school and the following 19.5 56.1 24.4
Technical secondary school /high school 14.5 47.4 38.2
college for professional training 19.9 42.2 38.0
regular college 15.4 40.0 44.6
Graduate and above 22.0% 34.8% 43.2
Annual
Travel
Frequency
once
20.2 38.9 40.9
2-5 times
16.4 39.7 43.9
Above 5 times
17.5 45.6 36.8
Payment
Method
facility trip
14.7 55.3 30.0
All-expense tour
18.1 35.4 46.4
Both of above
17.0 38.8 44.1
Table 6: The differences in green tourism consumer behaviors between tourists types (1).
Green Tourism Consumer Behaviors
Mean
F Sg.
harmonious
activists
anthropocentrists
ecocentrists
1. Before visiting somewhere, I would
ask for the information of local natural
and cultural resources.
5.19
5.29 5.49 3.407 0.034
2. I would choose the scenic spots, travel
agencies, hotels and travel guides which
provide environmental information.
4.27
4.52 4.08 8.429 0.000
3. I would never buy any wildlife and the
products made of them.
4.88 4.85 4.87 0.015 0.985
4. I would avoid using any chemicals
including soap, toothpaste, washing-up
liquid in the wild.
4.49 4.63 4.61 0.452 0.636
5. If it needs to use the chemical
washing-up liquid in the wild, I will be
far away from the source of water.
4.53 4.66 4.60 0.508 0.602
6. When I'm seabathing in the beach I
would pay attention to reduce trash.
5.40
5.37 5.66 5.632 0.004
7. I wouldn't pick, dig or shin the wild
plants at will when travelling.
5.59 5.43 5.61 1.936 0.145
8. I wouldn't cook a meal by bright fire
in the wild.
5.05 5.19 5.31 1.747 0.175
9. I wouldn't alarm, chase or feed the
wild animals deliberately when
travelling.
5.79
5.65 5.92 4.650 0.010
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Table 6: The differences in green tourism consumer behaviors between tourists types (2).
Green Tourism Consumer Behaviors
Mean
F Sg.
harmonious
activists
anthropocentrists ecocentrists
10. I wouldn't buy any souvenir at the cost
of damaging the environment in the tourist
resort.
5.28 5.29 5.42 0.958 0.384
11. I would prise the tourism enterprises
which implement environmental protection
project, and I hope they will adopt more
environmental protection measures.
5.28 5.29 5.42 0.958 0.384
12. I would offset my "carbon footprints" by
planting trees or buying "carbon emissions".
5.28 5.29 5.42 0.958 0.384
13. I would estimate my carbon emissions
and try to choose low-carbon travel.
3.59
4.06 3.51 10.581 0.000
14.I would prepare travel belongings to
reduce the variety and quantity of purchase
on the way.
5.44
5.45 5.74 4.980 0.007
15.I would like to use the reusable
containers(cotton shopping bag/lunck
box/kettle/chop sticks,etc.)
4.06 4.38 4.20 2.537 0.080
16. I would like to have dinner in luxary
restaurants.
3.38
3.61 2.99 15.142 0.000
17. I usually bring the toilet things myself
when traveling.
5.38 5.23 5.44 1.626 0.197
18. I would switch off the power of the
appliances that not in use when I'm in a
hotel.
4.88 4.98 4.98 0.238 0.788
19. I don't like the environmental cue card
in the guest room.
5.08
4.37 5.13 23.302 0.000
20. I would pay attention to reduce the use
and renewal of the towels and bedclothes
during the stay in the hotel.
4.32 4.36 4.46 0.499 0.607
21. I usually go to tourist destinations by
train, bus, bicycle and so on.
2.89 3.04 2.73 4.578 0.011
22. I always drive to the scenic spots
myself.
5.13 4.71 5.54 27.471 0.000
23. I would reduce the copy and print of
documents in the business travel.
4.90 5.14 5.31 4.577 0.011
24. I wouldn't take photos where there is a
"no photo" sign.
5.42 5.23 5.34 0.747 0.474
25. I wouldn't buy any culture relic for
collection or ornament in the tourist resort.
4.71 4.89 5.08
3.351 0.036
26. I would always buy the intangible
culture heritage souvenirs made by local
people.
4.94 4.81 4.79 0.694 0.500
27. I wouldn't bring my own living habit to
tourism destinations.
4.55
4.74 4.37 5.959 0.003
28. I wouldn't enjoy the authentic and
traditional cultural performance if possible.
4.83
4.08 4.93 27.408 0.000
29. I would admonish and stop the non-
environmental behaviors of the tourists
around me.
4.33 4.47 4.11
5.832 0.003
30. I would record my travel knowledge and
experience by photos/writings to provide
more information to the environmental
protectors and share with others.
4.96 4.96 5.05 0.402 0.669
STUDY ON GREEN TOURISM CONSUMPTIONS OF CHINESE TOURIST WITH DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT
PERCEPTION
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