Driving factors of pro-environmental behavior among rural tourism destination residents-considering the moderating effect of environmental policies

Residents of rural tourism destinations are the core participants in organizing and carrying out rural tourism activities. Therefore, guiding them to implement pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) in the daily lives is crucial for promoting the rural ecological civilization construction and achieving sustainable rural tourism. Combining the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Normative Activation Model (NAM), this study develops a theoretical model of the driving factors of PEB among rural tourism destination residents by considering the moderating effect of environmental policies. Empirical analysis is conducted using survey data from rural tourism destination residents in Sichuan Province, China, to explain the occurrence path of PEBs from the aspects of egoistic and altruistic attributes, and environmental policy factors. The research results indicate that perceived behavioral control and environmental attitudes directly affect the pro-environmental intention (PEI) of rural tourism destination residents, and indirectly affect their PEBs, while subjective norms have no significant impact on the PEI. The personal norms of rural tourism destination residents are activated through the pathways of "consequence awareness → personal norms" and "consequence awareness → responsibility attribution → personal norms", which in turn affect their PEIs, confirming the altruistic attributes of local residents. In addition, environmental policies have significant positive moderating effect on the conversion of PEI into PEB, but the intervention effects vary across different dimensions.