Exploring psychological mechanisms behind tourists’ sustainable behaviours at homestays

Homestay-based tourism is fraught with the challenge of what may prompt tourists to behave sustainably. Current research argues that tourists’ sustainable behaviours can be a function of the psychological ownership they experience towards the homestays. By applying the tenets of psychological ownership theory, this study also theorizes the predictors of psychological ownership towards the homestays. Data collected from homestay tourists in the rural Himalayan region is employed to test the hypotheses. Results reveal that tourists’ perceived control over homestays, their intimate knowledge, and self-investment during interactions with the homestays predict psychological ownership towards homestays which further explains tourists’ loyalty towards the homestays, a sense of localism, and pro-environmental behaviours representing the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable behaviours, respectively. This study demonstrates psychological ownership towards the homestays as a novel mechanism for sustainable tourist behaviours and establishes the routes to this state while broadening the scope of psychological ownership theory in tourism literature. On practical implications, this research lays down the markers that marketers can employ to design corresponding behavioural interventions aimed at stimulating tourists’ psychological ownership towards the homestays and thereby augment sustainable behaviours.