Ecotourists’ intentions, worldviews, environmental values: Does climate change matter?

Although ecotourism has been widely researched, much of potential ecotourists’ characteristics, attitudes, and worldviews are still poorly understood - particularly concerning climate change. This study profiles a sample of 2733 Italians based on their intention to undertake ecotourism and to ascertain whether significant differences exist among them based on their socio-demographic characteristics, psychological distance of climate change and worldviews (i.e. materialism), and their intention to act to cope with climate change. The study identifies three clusters including high-ecotourism-intention, neutral-ecotourism-intention, and low-ecotourism-intention -significantly differing in sociodemographic characteristics (i.e. family members, level of education, occupation, occupation sector, and association membership), psychological distance, materialism, and intention to act. Potential ecotourists show themselves more sensitive and concerned towards climate change and overall, more prone to act on it. Contributions to the body of knowledge and managerial implications are discussed and suggestions for further research are given.