Linking environmental knowledge, environmental responsibility, altruism, and intention toward green hotels through ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes

Purpose This study aims to examine the effects of environmental knowledge, perceived environmental responsibility and altruism on tourist’s intention to stay in green hotels. In addition, the mediating role played by tourists’ attitudes, including ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes, is explored. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 393 international tourists in Malaysia. This study followed a cross-sectional approach and applied the partial least squares – structural equation modelling using SmartPLS version 3 software to analyse the data and test the hypotheses. Findings The results indicated that environmental knowledge, altruism, environmental responsibility and ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes positively influence tourists’ intention to stay in green hotels. Ecocentric attitudes mediate environmental knowledge, altruism, environmental responsibility and intention to stay in green hotels. However, environmental knowledge and altruism do not influence anthropocentric attitudes. Likewise, anthropocentric attitudes do not mediate the relationship between environmental knowledge, altruism, perceived environmental responsibility and intention to stay in green hotels. Research limitations/implications This study posed several theoretical and practical implications that will benefit future researchers and practitioners while exploring tourists’ behaviour in a green hotel context. Originality/value This study makes a unique and significant contribution by including ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes in a unified model underpinned by the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Value-Basis Theory.