Tourism is the fourth largest economic contributor globally and outperforms the growth of the world economy (United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), 2013). But tourism growth comes at a cost. Not surprisingly, therefore, tourism is the fifth largest polluting industry (UNWTO and UNEP, 2008). Governments could impose regulations to ensure environmental sustainability of their tourism industry. However, the potential of limiting tourism revenue through such regulations acts as a strong disincentive. Businesses operating in the tourism industry could also self-regulate to ensure the implementation of environmentally sustainable practices. Yet, the cost typically associated with making tourism businesses more environmentally friendly acts as a substantial disincentive to the adoption of environmentally sustainable operations (Berry & Ladkin, 1997; Knowles, Macmillan, Palmer, Grabowski & Hashimoto, 1999). Given the reluctance of governments and tourism businesses to adopt environmentally sustainable practices, alternative approaches need to be identified, tested and – if shown to be promising – pursued. One such alternative approach is to induce voluntary behavioural change in tourists. But changing human behaviour – while theoretically attractive – “is an ongoing challenge in psychology, economics, and consumer behaviour research” (Baca-Motes, Brown, Gneezy, Keenan & Nelson, 2013, p. 1070). In fact, many decades of research into sustainable tourism have produced only few tangible measures proven to increase the environmental sustainability of tourist behaviour. This is despite the fact that – in the home context – a range of interventions have been shown to be effective in changing behaviours (e.g. Kua & Wong, 2012; Schultz, 1999).

Dolnicar, Cvelbar & Grun, Making hotel guests voluntarily waive daily room cleaning.pdf