Environmental Stewardship among Beach Users and Implications for Sustainable Coastal Tourism Governance in Cox’s Bazar Bangladesh

Abstract This study examined multidimensional environmental stewardship among 170 beach users in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and its implications for sustainable coastal tourism governance. Using an archived cross-sectional questionnaire dataset, environmental stewardship was reanalysed through a reconstructed, conceptually specified Environmental Stewardship Index (ESI) comprising behavioural orientation, attitude, environmental awareness and understanding, ethics, and willingness. Thirty-seven eligible items were transformed to a common 0–100 scale and combined using equal dimension weighting. The overall ESI mean was 74.31 (SD = 11.74). Ethics (78.82), willingness (76.03), and environmental awareness and understanding (75.70) scored higher than behavioural orientation (69.21), indicating a descriptive divergence across stewardship dimensions rather than an observed attitude-to-behaviour transition. Archived income categories showed non-monotonic heterogeneity, while the secondary physiographic comparison showed no meaningful group difference. Respondents also expressed strong support for improved waste management, implementation of environmental laws and regulations, social-awareness initiatives, and restrictions on single-use plastics. These findings inform a conceptual Green Beach Governance Framework linking stewardship orientation with enabling conditions such as environmental education, infrastructure, enforcement, institutional capacity, accessibility, and community participation. The study provides an exploratory stewardship baseline for sustainable coastal tourism and highlights the need for prospective validation and direct behavioural measurement.