Cognitive Factors of Responsible Tourism Attitude: The Perspective From Sarawak’s Ecotourist

Responsible tourism involves ethical and responsible practices in production and consumption by all tourism stakeholders to achieve sustainable tourism. The recent tourism crisis has revealed the sector\\\'s vulnerability, highlighting its significant impact on national and local economies and the livelihoods of many individuals and families. The tourism industry in Malaysia has faced severe crises and unsustainable practices couple years ago due to its rapid growth and past lack of responsible approaches, leading to issues with sustainability. This study explored ecotourists\\\' attitudes toward responsible tourism, influenced by four key predictors — awareness, perceived value, self-efficacy, and outcome expectation. The goal is to understand tourists\\\' perceptions and identify attitude that may lead to behavioral change. The study adopted a quantitative approach, with the valid data of 383 (N=383). Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 29.0 were utilized to perform preliminary data analysis. Then SmartPLS 4.0 is used to perform two stage partial lease square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) analysis. The result recommended that awareness, perceived value, and outcome expectation is positively and significantly related to attitude. However, self-efficacy is found to have no impact on attitude. Besides, the current study is believed to be able to contribute to the literature, scholars, policymakers and industry players by providing empirical evidence in the field of responsible tourism and sustainable tourism.