A Green Shadow: the Influence of Hotel Customers' Environmental Knowledge and Concern on Green Marketing Skepticism and Behavioral Intentions

• Yoon, Donghwan ^[1] ; Chen, Rachel J. C. ^[2]
  1. [1] Pennsylvania State University

     Pennsylvania State University

     Borough of State College, Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] University Of Tennessee System

     University Of Tennessee System

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Tourism analysis, ISSN 1083-5423, Vol. 22, Nº. 3, 2017, págs. 281-293
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Today's customers are frequently exposed to environmental claims and are prone to doubt whether these claims contain any truth for improving the natural environment. Customers' negative perceptions, expressed as skepticism, may distort hotels' green marketing efforts. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the environmental knowledge of potential clients and their concerns about the environment on their skepticism toward hotels' green marketing claims. Further, due to the noteworthy relevance of skepticism and behavioral intentions, this study also examines the influential roles of skepticism on word of mouth and visit intentions. Four hundred and eleven participants were surveyed through an online research company. The results of structural equation modeling reveal that skepticism is a negative function of environmental knowledge, while environmental concern positively influences skepticism, and skepticism negatively leads to customers' word-of-mouth behavior and visit intentions. Further, this study provides practical implications of these findings for hotel marketers.