Key Factors Influencing Environmentally Responsible Behavior in the Community-Based Ecotourism Development (CBET): Antecedents and Implications

Community-based ecotourism (CBET) aims to empower local communities through engagement and participation. Cambodia serves as a prime example of a developing country where the local community necessitates sustained stakeholder support to foster empowerment and promote local economic development. Ecotourism and conservation are among the major issues of concern in the study of community development. This study used the main five eco-tourism areas in Cambodia as examples. It looks at the connections between eco-innovations in tourism products, community engagement, co-creation experiences, support for CBET, perceived impact likelihood outcomes, community economic benefits, environmentally responsible behavior in ecotourism sites, and biodiversity conservation. The study employed a quantitative research approach to investigate and parameterize the dynamic ecotourism components as well as to explore key factors that influence the CBET. We collected the data using a self-administered survey on 398 local eco-based tourism communities that sell services and products to tourists. We also asked for structured questionnaire items of local communities that provide tourism services to visitors in eco-tourism destination sites in 2022-2023. The SEM results showed that this study significantly impacted and confirmed all relationships among research variables, as proposed in the conceptual model. We also discuss in detail the research findings of this study.