Low-Carbon Travel Motivation and Constraint: Scales Development and Validation

Abstract

Low-carbon travel has emerged as a topic of interest in tourism and academia. Studies have offered reasons tourists may engage in low-carbon travel; however, these explanations are scattered throughout the literature and have yet to be integrated into low-carbon travel motivation and constraint constructs. This study develops a low-carbon travel motivation scale (LCTMS) and a low-carbon travel constraint scale (LCTCS). It performs reliability and validity testing to measure the low-carbon travel motives and obstacles. Items were collected primarily by literature review, and, then, by surveys of 382 tourists from low-carbon travel destinations and 390 from non-low-carbon travel destinations. Through a rigorous scale development process, this study identifies six dimensions of the LCTMS (environmental protection, experience-seeking, escape or social connection, industry pleas and measures for environmental protection, low-carbon products, and green transportation) and four dimensions of the LCTCS (intrapersonal constraints, interpersonal constraints, structural constraints, and the not a travel option).