From good feelings to good behavior: Exploring the impacts of positive emotions on tourist environmentally responsible behavior

Emotions are pervasive in the tourism experience. However, most studies on tourist environmentally responsible behavior (ERB) adopt a moral or rational perspective, marginalizing the effect of tourists' emotional states. This study plugs this gap by linking tourists' positive emotions with two types of ERBs, namely ethical ERB and philanthropic ERB. A conceptual model comprising positive emotions, self-efficacy, place identity, and tourist ERB is developed and empirically tested with data collected at a typical nature-based tourism destination in China. The results reveal a positive association between positive emotions and both types of tourist ERB. Notably, positive emotions have no direct effect on tourist ERB but do have indirect effects through self-efficacy and place identity, which serve as mediators that bridge positive emotions and tourist ERB. These findings enrich the literature by highlighting the role which positive emotions play in the tourist ERB model and offer valuable insights for the environmental management of tourism destinations.