ABSTRACT
Research on sustainable practices of backpackers lacks a comprehensive model for understanding their sustainable behavior. This paper argues that the contribution of backpacker tourism to sustainable consumption can be achieved if backpackers’ attitudes and behaviors are understood and managed. Predicated on the tri-component attitude model that conceptualizes attitude as a complex relationship among cognition (backpacker motivations and perceived impacts of backpacking), actions (backpacker sustainable and unsustainable behavior), and affection (backpacker satisfaction), this paper proposes a model for understanding backpacker sustainable behavior. We surveyed 400 backpackers in Ghana and tested 12 hypotheses using SPSS and AMOS software. The findings demonstrate that perceived positive impacts of backpacking predict backpacker sustainable behavior, suggesting that backpackers perceive their impacts positively, and hence engage in sustainable behaviors to reaffirm such perceptions. The results, however, reveal an insignificant relationship between the perceived positive impacts of backpacking and backpacker unsustainable behavior. The results also show that backpacker motivations explain the tendency to behave unsustainably. Based on these findings, we draw implications for promoting “intentional sustainability” by global organizations and destination management organizations.
