Will tourists' travel freedom awareness interfere with the practice of carbon neutrality?: The influence of travel freedom awareness on environmental consciousness and carbon-neutral tourism behavioral intention

This study explores the impact of freedom, a core value of tourism, on tourists' pro-environmental behavior. Despite increasing policies for climate change mitigation and carbon neutrality in tourism, research on how tourists' travel freedom awareness affects their acceptance of pro-environmental behavior is limited. An online survey targeting Korean nationals aged 19 and older was conducted using a probability sampling method. Findings from the analysis of 839 valid samples reveal that environmental consciousness (knowledge, severity, efficacy) positively influences pro-environmental attitudes, which in turn enhance carbon-neutral tourism behavioral intentions. Significant differences were observed across all variables depending on the level of travel freedom awareness. Additionally, in the low travel freedom awareness group, severity and efficacy did not have a significant impact on pro-environmental attitudes, while all other relationships showed a positive effect. In contrast, contrary to the hypothesis predicting negative effects across all relationships in the group with high travel freedom awareness, the results showed that all relationships had positive impacts. This study broadens the understanding of tourists' pro-environmental behavior and offers practical implications for carbon-neutral tourism policies and strategies.