Urban travelers’ pro-environmental behaviors: Composition and role of pro-environmental contextual force

While human actions are the outcome of both personal and contextual forces, existing pro-environmental behavior (PEB) studies have predominantly focused on the former, leaving contextual drivers rarely examined. Urban areas attract large numbers of tourists, yet tourist PEB studies have primarily focused on nature-based and lodging settings, leaving PEBs in urban settings under-evaluated. In the current study, we seek to develop and validate a scale measuring the pro-environmental contextual force that affects urban tourists’ PEBs. Adopting mixed-method approaches, this paper involves three studies. This paper contributes the first measurement instrument for pro-environmental contextual force, tests its role, and extends the theory of planned behavior. This paper also provides practical implications for PEB interventions at tourism destinations.