Effects of sustainability on WoM intention and revisit intention, with environmental awareness as a moderator

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of sustainability on word-of-mouth (WoM) intention and revisit intention, with environmental awareness as a moderator. This study was carried out in one of the tourist destinations in Indonesia, namely, Bali.

Design/methodology/approach

The population in this study was foreign tourists visiting Bali. This study uses non-probability sampling with a purposive sampling technique and uses inferential statistics. Inferential statistics was used to test the sample data on the effect of sustainability on WoM intention and revisit intention. The statistical tool used is warp-partial least square.

Findings

Effect of sustainability on WoM intention is that the higher perception of foreign tourists in the sustainability assessment will increase the WoM intention of foreign tourists. Contrarily, lower perception of foreign tourists on sustainability assessment will lower the WoM intention of foreign tourists. Effects of sustainability on revisit intention is that the higher perception of foreign tourists in the sustainability assessment will increase the revisit intention of foreign tourists. Contrarily, the lower perception of foreign tourists in sustainability assessment will lower the revisit intention of foreign tourists. Environmental awareness moderating the effects of sustainability on revisit intention is that the higher the environmental awareness of foreign tourists visiting Bali, the stronger the influence of sustainability on revisit intention. Contrarily, the lower environmental awareness of foreign tourists visiting Bali will lower the effect of sustainability on revisit intention.

Originality/value

Destination sustainability research from the perspective of tourists has not been conducted up to the behavior intention, and research is still limited to tourist satisfaction. Research that connects destination sustainability with trust, WoM intention and revisit intention has not been found yet. WoM intention and revisit intention provide a clearer picture than behavioral intention; therefore, this study focuses on WoM intention and revisit intention variables. Destination sustainability research has not been combined with destination quality as an exogenous variable that is able to predict more precisely tourist satisfaction and behavioral intention. Research has not been found on environmental awareness in relation to the sustainability variable and behavior intention. The studies that have been carried out only focus on the effect of environmental awareness on the behavior intention (Gao et al., 2016), and the research has not yet linked it to sustainability.

Citation

Kusumawati, A., Utomo, H.S., Suharyono, S. and Sunarti, S. (2020), "Effects of sustainability on WoM intention and revisit intention, with environmental awareness as a moderator", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 273-288. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEQ-03-2019-0064