Sustainable tourism research: Factors influencing students’ intention to stay at green hotels - an empirical study in Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

This study investigates the factors influencing university students’ intention of staying at green hotels in Ho Chi Minh City. With the rapidly increasing climate change and environmental pollution, sustainable tourism has become a crucial trend, with green hotels playing a pivotal role in reducing negative environmental impacts. This research evaluates the impact of factors such as environmental belief, environmental commitment, environmental concern, green image, social media marketing, and green trust on students’ staying intention at green hotels by applying the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) Theory, and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model. Data were gathered from 325 university students in Ho Chi Minh City through a survey on online platform and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with Smart PLS 4. The findings indicate that environmental belief and attitude have the strongest influence on students’ intention to stay at green hotels, while environmental commitment, environmental concern, and social media marketing also have significant effects. Additionally, green image and green trust hold a mediating role in strengthening students’ intention to stay at green hotels. The contribution of the study lies in the theoretical understanding of sustainable consumption behavior and provides practical implications for hotel businesses in implementing marketing strategies that ensure high efficiency, enhancing green brand image and trust. Furthermore, the research suggests policy recommendations to promote sustainable tourism, which is part of the broader Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and raise environmental awareness among young people, particularly university students - who represent a promising segment in the future of the tourism industry