Motivating pro-poor tourism: a recursive framework of empathy and norms on prosocial behaviours

This study investigates the underlying roles of empathy and norms as motivational factors influencing individuals’ participation in pro-poor tourism (PPT), a form of prosocial behaviour aimed at alleviating absolute poverty through tourism. An online survey (N = 497) was conducted among a representative sample in Japan. Using structural equation modelling, the results revealed no significant direct paths from empathy and norms to participation intention in PPT. However, the model identified a significant path from another dependent variable, the intention to donate to absolute poverty, to the intention to participate in PPT. Findings indicate that awareness of PPT remains limited in Japan, yet suggest that marketing strategies employing a recursive framework of empathy and norms could effectively motivate participation, especially among individuals with prior donation experience. These results highlight that empathy and norms, as identified in previous prosocial behaviour studies, may also serve as motivational drivers across different reference groups. Moreover, the study implies that existing travel products, such as community-based, rural, and ecotourism, could incorporate elements of PPT, currently absent as a distinct tourism model.