Pro-environmental Behaviour of Tourists in Uzbekistan: Application of Protection Motivation Theory

1.3 Purpose of the study

Uzbekistan’s nature-based destinations are now facing challenges to sustain its ecological resources due to their popularity and high demand among tourists (Alimdjanov, 2020). The influx has led to negative impacts in various destinations largely because of visitors’ depreciative behaviours towards wildlife, resource, and environmental setting (ODB Brussels, 2020). Among the most important environmental challenges in Uzbekistan are the emission of pollutants in many big cities, thick dust pollution, lack of resources, water and air pollution (Khodievich, 2022). With such a vast number of environmental issues, public engagement is required to avoid a worsening situation and to decrease or solve current issues. Tourists, as active members of the community who go to Uzbekistan's destinations, might be regarded as major stakeholders in this respect, since they bear the cost of past (existing ecological problems such as soil and air pollution and lack of fresh water supplies) and present environmental irresponsibility (contributing to polluting water and air by throwing away waste and renting transports, etc.). Hence, monitoring and managing visitor behaviours have become major management issues to mitigate impacts and promote responsible behaviours. As a result, creating scientific information on what motivates people to act pro-environmentally is an important topic of concern with practical applications for moving toward a more sustainable future. Tourists’ pro-environmental behaviours have been extensively examined in recent decades to gain insight into protection of destinations’ natural resources, and avert negative impacts (Kim, & Thapa, 2018; Lee et al., 2013). Research has generally adopted the attitude-behaviour model to anticipate visitors’ pro-environmental behaviours (Lee & Jan, 2015), while few studies have investigated whether behaviours are related to attitudes, cognition, and emotions towards nature (Ahmad et al., 2021).

This latter aspect reveals that there are many studies which covered pro-environmental behaviour which can be explained by Protection Motivation Theory requires additional research with regards to the examination of the antecedents of tourists’ pro-environmental behaviours based on Protection Motivation Theory. It is because Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) is a well-established framework in psychology and has been used extensively to explain and predict pro-environmental behaviors. However, while PMT provides a useful theoretical basis for understanding the factors that motivate individuals to engage in pro-environmental behavior, there are still gaps in our understanding of how the theory applies specifically to tourists in developing countries.

Although the influence of values on pro-environmental behaviour is well-studied in the past, in particular, there is little research that specifically formulates tourists' psychological mechanisms for how pro-environmental behaviours lead to particular motivations in framework of PMT toward the Uzbekistan’s natural environment. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to fill the research gap by investigating crucial social group, i.e., tourists and their pro-environmental behaviour using the PMT as a framework. The goal of this study is to better understand the factors that motivate tourists to engage in environmentally friendly behaviors while visiting the country; to investigate the relationship between tourists' perceptions of environmental threats, attitudes toward pro-environmental behavior, and actual behaviour; to investigate how tourists' perceptions of the threat of environmental problems and their ability to engage in pro-environmental behavior are influenced by their beliefs, attitudes, and perceived efficacy using the Protection Motivation Theory. The study also aims to provide insight on the various types of interventions and messages intended to promote pro-environmental behavior among tourists. The study's findings can be used by stakeholders in the tourism industry and policymakers to develop more effective strategies for promoting sustainable tourism practices in Uzbekistan.

Picture 1. Samarkand, the Registan Square