Predictors of patronage intentions towards ‘green’ hotels in an emerging tourism market

Abstract

Hotel administrations in emerging tourism markets do not invest in environmental conservation because of low confidence in that such investment will drive customer patronage. Empirical evidence is required to showcase what predicts patronage intentions towards ‘green’ hotels in emerging tourism markets. This evidence can encourage local hotel administrations to conserve the environment. This study augments theory of planned behaviour to explore predictors of customer patronage towards ‘green’ hotels in Poland, an emerging tourism market in East-Central Europe. Primary data are collected by the method of consumer survey (n = 376) and analysed by the method of structural equation modeling with partial least squares. The study identifies environmental knowledge and pro-environmental attitudes as strong predictors of patronage intentions. Knowledge of ‘green’ hotels has limited influence on patronage but strongly affects pro-environmental attitudes. Environmental concern significantly affects environmental knowledge but exerts limited effect on knowledge of ‘green’ hotels. Travel frequency does not influence patronage intentions, but tourist age and affluence do. Policy-making and management implications are discussed.