Perceived City Sustainability and Tourist Behavioural Intentions

Abstract

The focus on the sustainability of tourism destinations and firms is a global trend. However, the implications of those investments in tourist behavioural intentions need further investigation. This study proposes a conceptual framework for exploring the influence of sustainability perceptions and travel behaviour on the intention to recommend and revisit. The results from structural equation modelling and importance–performance matrix analysis show a direct relationship between travel behaviour and perceived sustainability. Additionally, it shows a direct relationship between travel behaviour and perceived value, corroborating previous research on green tourists. By increasing perceived sustainability, managers and marketers can enhance their sustainability strategies based on tourists’ feedback and market the destination to more specific targets via tailored communication. Sustainability perceptions were also found to be a key driver of satisfaction and to have indirect consequences on behavioural intentions of loyalty, representing the ultimate goal of a destination.

1. Introduction

Alternatives to the existing tourism model were created, and most importantly, international organisations started to highlight the links between sustainability, development, and tourism. The document that paved the way for the definition of sustainable tourism is the Brundtland Report, drafted by the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). The report defined sustainable development for the first time as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Since then, several attempts have been made to implement consensus concepts and measurement approaches. To find worldwide commonalities in sustainable tourism development assessment tools, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) was created in 2010 through the merger of the Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria and the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council (STSC). The first set of thirty-seven criteria was developed in 2013 as a first step toward creating “the world’s baseline standards for tourism destination management and as a framework for national or regional sustainability standards” [1]. The criteria include four main dimensions (sustainable management plus socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental impacts), ranging from measures of resident engagement to climate change adaptation [2]. The TOI also joined the council, and in 2016, the GSTC Industry Criteria were released as a set of indicators for the private sector (e.g., tour operators and accommodation providers). As the GSTC criteria are strongly linked to the targets set in these documents, they also serve as a measurement system for countries’ contributions toward the 2030 Agenda. Particularly since 2019, when the council completed the target criteria with the addition of performance indicators [1], it has finally become an international benchmark for sustainability assessment [3]. The GSTC places a lot of importance on monitoring and reporting, this being one of their fundamental requirements for a destination management strategy. One of their criteria clearly states, “The destination is implementing a system to monitor and respond to socio-economic, cultural, and environmental issues and impacts arising from tourism”. “Actions and outcomes must be regularly monitored, evaluated, and publicly reported” [2]. Indeed, sustainability actions should not be implemented on a one-off basis but should be continuously monitored to ensure effectiveness and stakeholder satisfaction with the projects in question [4]. Sánchez-Fernández et al. [5] looked at perceived sustainability as a tool for both market segmentation and strategic feedback. Firstly, they clustered tourists according to their perceptions of sustainability initiatives at the destination level to develop more precise marketing and communication strategies. Secondly, they provided a conceptual framework that explains the cyclical process of perceived sustainability, from implementing sustainable policies to the tourists’ feedback, arguing that stakeholders’ perceptions have enormous potential in evaluating and controlling sustainability strategies.

Nevertheless, the literature on perceived sustainability is still scarce and incoherent for several reasons. First, its definition depends on the school of thought and what they consider to be the definition of sustainability. Second, most of the measurement scales used in previous literature are context-specific, limiting further investigation of a universal instrument. Third, most studies examine the effects of perceptions on other variables rather than the factors that influence perceptions. Moreover, although perceived sustainability has been proven to be a variable in tourist segmentation, previous literature solely characterised tourists by sociodemographic and trip-related information [5], not allowing for the drawing of specific clusters of tourists. Therefore, this article wants to move beyond the characterisation used in previous research in order to evaluate the perceptions of sustainability more accurately, as well as its resulting impacts on the market. This study aims at testing the relationship between travel behaviour and perceived sustainability to understand the possibility of using this construct in future segmentation studies. Indeed, perceptions are created by both outside and inside influences, including attitudes and behaviours. It also extends the present literature on perceived sustainability by creating a conceptual model that relates it to perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty. By analysing key drivers of destination competitiveness, this research can be helpful for researchers, managers, and marketers in the tourism field, improving their knowledge of sustainability perceptions and evaluation. These results would enable the private and public sectors to measure their sustainable initiatives’ performance and direct specific marketing efforts according to tourists’ feedback and attitudes. Findings apply to the context of Lisbon and, more generally, to European Green Capitals, where sustainability levels have been rated positively by European standards.

This study is structured as follows: The literature review examines the importance of perceptions, their formation, and their application in sustainable tourism. An overview of the definition of sustainable tourism is also given to investigate its use for market segmentation studies. Then, the conceptual framework and the hypothesis are proposed, together with the previous research on perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty. The following section is on methodology, in which the research context, data collection, sample, and assessment procedures are illustrated. The findings are then analysed and compared to previous findings, including their implications for the tourism field in the context of the research and contribution to the literature. In conclusion, limitations and proposals for future research are suggested.

2. Theoretical Framework and Conceptual Model

2.1. Theoretical Framework

The recent literature review highlights the importance of perceptions in tourism research. Sharma and Rickly [6] focused on travellers’ perceptions of dark tourism sites. In particular, the research examined how the experience of Hindu cremation grounds in Varanasi, India, pushes tourists to deeply change their attitude towards life while searching for an existential authenticity. On the contrary, Causevic and MarkNeal [7] looked at governmental control of tourism narratives, where, in the case of Oman, for example, historical facts are not fully presented in heritage sites to hide the country’s actual socio-political situation from the foreign eye. This manipulation, called orientalisation, results in an enchanting, exotic image characterising tourist perceptions [7].

The literature on sustainability perceptions in tourism, on the other hand, is still scarce and far from consensual. Indeed, perceived sustainability was recently defined and reflected the conceptual complexity of sustainability itself. For example, several studies investigated it as a unidimensional construct, identifying sustainability solely as environmental, social, or economic. Sánchez-Fernández et al. [8] conducted a market segmentation study on tourists’ perceptions of environmental sustainability in five Mediterranean cities. Results showed the existence of three different tourist clusters with low, medium, and high perceptions of the environmental sustainability of the destination, confirming the possible use of the findings for marketing and managerial initiatives. Bernini et al. [9] also based their study on tourists’ perceptions of the environmental sustainability of the District of Rimini, an Italian mass tourist destination. Findings showed that, in this case, sustainability was less important than other factors in ensuring satisfaction with the trip since the city did not meet environmental sustainability expectations.

More common approaches to the concept are multidimensional ones. Cottrell et al. [10] used the prism of sustainability as a framework for the creation of a 22-item scale that included four dimensions of sustainability (environmental, economic, socio-cultural, and institutional). Mathew and Sreejesh [11] also defined perceived sustainability through four main areas (economic, cultural, social, and environmental) to understand the impact of perceived responsible tourism on residents’ quality of life. Guizzardi et al. [12] also used a multidimensional construct. The latter research is particularly interesting since it adopted a tailor-made scale for the context of Adriatic rural areas made of four dimensions (environment protection, culture, welfare, safety, and security), as they found other commonly used multidimensional models irrelevant for their specific case.

Research on tourists’ behaviour based on preferences and intentions clashes with research on cognitive dissonance and the attitude-behaviour gap. Several studies found that tourists struggle to turn their values into concrete actions, regardless of their pro-environmental attitudes. Ramchurjee and Suresha [13] researched this behavioural mismatch in 335 tourists to Hassan, Karnataka, India. In this case, people who engaged in sustainable activities at home (e.g., recycling, conserving energy and resources), showing responsibility towards their immediate surroundings and community, weighed the same aspects differently when considering their future holidays. Juvan and Dolnicar reported similar results [14]. Their sample solely consisted of environmental activists, whose beliefs and behaviours are known to be in line with pro-environmental attitudes, to test the validity of the attitude-behaviour gap when considering travel behaviour. After proving their awareness of the tourism industry’s negative impacts on the environment, most of them, in various measures, felt a gap between their attitude and their behaviour, resulting in sensations of tension and guilt, i.e., they experienced significant cognitive dissonance.

The above analysis of the literature has highlighted inaccuracies when determining the profile of the sustainable tourist from the relationship between attitudes and intentions, thereby calling for a deeper understanding or analysis of tourists’ behaviour. To compare people’s behaviours at home and on holidays, Holmes et al. [15] analysed sustainable behaviour’s key pillars, namely altruism and pro-ecological behaviour. In particular, altruism involved actions aimed to “benefit other human beings”, and pro-ecological behaviour included “conscious actions performed by an individual to lessen the negative impact of human activities on the environment and to enhance the quality of the environment” [15]. The results found that the more frequently people engaged in altruism and pro-ecological behaviour at home, the more sustainable actions they would take on holiday, confirming the possibility of directly using behaviour to define the green traveller.

This study adopts the triple bottom line approach to the definition given by Sánchez-Fernández et al. [5]. They started from the definition by Solomon et al. [16] of consumers’ perceptions as “the process of selecting, organising, and interpreting information and stimuli by cognitive-affective evaluative judgement, to create a meaningful picture of the product, service, or brand”. Sánchez-Fernández et al. [5] then translated this to the tourism context, defining perceived sustainability as “the tourist’s cognitive-affective evaluation of sustainability policies implemented at a particular destination by managers and destination marketing organisations”. This definition adds another layer of complexity to the understanding and measuring of perceived sustainability. Perceptions are explained through a cognitive-affective evaluation, where beliefs and knowledge represent the cognitive component and the affective one involves the emotional sphere and the feelings a tourist has about a destination’s sustainability attributes [17]. As previously mentioned, perceptions were studied in various contexts. Most of these studies analysed how they influence other variables such as consumer behaviour, intentions, and destination images [7,18] while neglecting the analysis of factors that influence their formation. According to research in psychology, much of the perceptual process is bottom-up, as the perceptual system automatically and passively receives stimuli via sense organs.

Perceived sustainability is not enough for a tourist destination to thrive. If tourists do not perceive a responsibly managed heritage as adding value, sustainability will not bring any competitive advantage [12,19]. Tourist motivations are numerous and diverse, and some visitors might perceive regulations as a limit to their enjoyment and satisfaction with the experience instead of conservation and protection measures. In particular, for consumers who are more sensitive to social and environmental issues, the levels of company sustainability were found to elevate or reduce the perceived value of its products. Choi and Ng [20] extended the previous findings to economic and environmental sustainability. They found that poor sustainability commitments and communication damaged their overall evaluation, with stronger negative impacts concerning environmental sustainability.

In the early literature, the perceived value was mainly monetary in nature, and its measurement resulted from the relationship between perceived quality and monetary sacrifice. Zeithaml [21] then proposed a universal definition that served as a basis for the several context-specific ones created afterward. Perceived value was described as “the overall assessment of the utility of a product based on the perceptions of what is received and what is given”. The latter implied the necessity of accounting for multiple dimensions when considering perceived value, going beyond the single-item definition. Peña and Molina [22] and Guizzardi et al. [12] investigated the perceived value of rural tourism as a multidimensional construct, including functional and affective dimensions that would capture both the tourists’ rational and emotional evaluations. However, the value created in rural tourism experiences is characterised by the unique features of the place, which are not available in other contexts. Therefore, Iniesta-Bonillo et al. [23] investigated visitors’ perceived values of Cullera (Spain) and Oristano (Italy), two Mediterranean seaside destinations. The analysis included both monetary and non-monetary costs (effort and time), creating a measurement scale that is more adaptable to diverse settings. The previously mentioned literature on perceived value also tried to analyse the contribution of perceived sustainability to the creation of value, and findings showed a positive relationship between the two variables in rural and seaside destinations [12,22,23].

Perceived sustainability and destination value were identified as competitiveness drivers due to their influence on satisfaction and loyalty. Satisfaction can be defined as “a post-consumption behaviour that emanates from cognitive and emotional assessments of an experience” [24]. Researchers have widely studied it in tourism owing to its essential role in the success of a destination. A great deal of thought was given to the factors that influence customer satisfaction because satisfied customers are more likely to return and recommend the establishment to their friends and family. Iniesta-Bonillo et al. [23] found that tourists’ satisfaction with their trips to Cullera (Spain) and Oristano (Italy) was influenced by their sustainability perceptions of the environmental, socio-cultural, and economic dimensions. In contrast, Guizzardi et al. [12] did not find any direct influence of perceived sustainability on satisfaction. However, the relationship proved significant thanks to the mediating role of perceived value, whose effect on satisfaction has been widely demonstrated [23,25,26,27]. Therefore, to further investigate and confirm these relationships, the present study aims to test the following hypotheses:

The literature review showed various attempts to use perceived sustainability as a variable for tourist segmentation, characterising tourists by sociodemographic and trip-related information. Sánchez-Fernández et al. [8] studied the unobserved heterogeneity among tourists visiting five Mediterranean Sea Basin cities regarding their perceptions of environmental sustainability. Findings showed three clusters with different perceptions (low, medium, and high) as well as three different demographic characterisations mainly in terms of education and nights spent at the destination. Tourists with high perceptions of environmental sustainability spent the longest time (more than six nights) visiting, and more than 50% had completed tertiary education. Sánchez-Fernández et al. [5] then expanded the study to consider sustainability as a multidimensional concept, using the following three dimensions: environmental, sociocultural, and economic.

Loyalty, in general terms, can be described as “a deeply held commitment to repurchase or repatronise a preferred product/service consistently in the future” [28]. This definition can be translated into three main dimensions in the tourism industry: the intention to revisit, recommend, and generate positive word-of-mouth reactions about a destination. As far as perceived sustainability is concerned, Guizzardi et al. [12] investigated for the first time its influence on satisfaction and did not find any direct relation.

Bernini et al. [9] investigated perceptions of environmental sustainability in the District of Rimini and clustered tourists according to their level of importance and satisfaction with the sustainability of tourism services (hotels, urban environment, commerce, information, and beaches) at the destination. The study identified four clusters ranging from satisfied, who considered sustainability important and were highly satisfied with each area of investigation, to critics, who were the most unsatisfied with sustainability levels. Both clusters were deemed sensitive to environmental issues, but their age ranges were different: the first one included people over 44, and the second was mainly composed of young people. Other variables were added in the segmentation study of Penagos-Londono et al. [29], where the perceived sustainability and trustworthiness of a destination are based on tourists’ perceptions of tourism impacts. Passafaro et al. [30] also investigated the influence of personal values on the preference for sustainable experiences, including the analysis of attitudes and personality traits in the equation. Environmental psychology places much importance on the individual rather than collective ecological responsibility as a predictor of responsible behaviour: travellers feel more likely to engage when they are actively involved in the problem and its resolution.

On the contrary, the relation between perceived value and loyalty has been widely investigated [26,27] and proved valid. Wang et al. [27] researched this relationship on a sample of tourists travelling by car in the Xinjiang region of China and demonstrated that perceived value strongly influenced intention to recommend, word of mouth, and intention to revisit. Another significant relationship, both direct and indirect, that has been tested by a large body of research in the literature is the one between satisfaction and loyalty [22,25,26,27]. As Wang et al. [27] state, satisfaction is a “mediator between quality evaluations and customers’ post-consumption behaviours”.

2.2. Conceptual Framework

Based on the previous theoretical framework, the conceptual research model (Figure 1) is based on the following hypotheses:

H1. 

Travel behaviour positively relates to perceived sustainability.

H1a. 

Travel behaviour positively relates to perceived value.

H2. 

Perceived sustainability positively relates to perceived value.

H2a. 

Perceived sustainability positively relates to overall satisfaction.

H2b. 

Perceived sustainability positively relates to the intention to recommend.

H2c. 

Perceived sustainability positively relates to the intention to revisit.

H3. 

Perceived value positively relates to the intention to recommend.

H3a. 

Perceived value positively relates to the intention to revisit.

H3b. 

Perceived value positively relates to overall satisfaction.

H4. 

Overall satisfaction positively relates to the intention to recommend.

H4a. 

Overall satisfaction positively relates to the intention to revisit.

H5. 

Perceived sustainability mediates the positive relationship between travel behaviour and perceived value.

H6. 

Overall satisfaction mediates the positive relationship between perceived sustainability and intention to recommend.

H6a. 

Overall satisfaction mediates the positive relationship between perceived sustainability and intention to revisit.

3. Materials and Methods

As perceived sustainability has proven to be a valuable construct for market segmentation, the present study sought to characterise tourists’ perceptions further to develop more detailed tourism segments. To this end, the relationship between general travel behaviour and perceived sustainability was explored, aiming for a deeper understanding of the results and their practical implementations. Moreover, this study investigated tourists’ perceptions of Lisbon to evaluate the sustainability policies implemented in the city until the present moment and understand the impact of this variable on the overall tourist experience. Therefore, the model analysed the relationship between perceived sustainability, perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty (intention to recommend and intention to revisit). The analysis employed a quantitative approach by creating a survey for data collection.

3.1. Measures

The survey was based on the existing literature concerning travel behaviour, perceived sustainability, the value and satisfaction of tourist experiences, and loyalty [5,15,23,24,31]. The twenty-three-item measure of travel behaviour was conceived by Holmes et al. [15] in its three dimensions (economic, sociocultural, and environmental). The survey requested information on choices and preferences, such as “Purchase locally grown food and/or drink” and “Bring and use a refillable water bottle.” Perceived sustainability was also considered in its multidimensionality, drawing on the fourteen-item scale developed by Sánchez-Fernández et al. [5]. Regarding perceived value, the four items were taken from Iniesta-Bonillo et al. [23], and the measurement consisted of questions like “Considering the time I spent, it is worth visiting this destination.” The four-item satisfaction scale was developed by Prayag et al. [24]. Finally, loyalty was analysed through the four-item scales of intention to recommend and intention to revisit. The construct was created by Solís-Radilla et al. [31] with questions such as “I would choose to holiday in this tourist destination again,” and “I would recommend my family and friends visit this tourist destination”. All the items mentioned above were adapted to the research context of Lisbon and measured using five-point Likert-type scales. A pilot test validated the full comprehension of the respondents.

3.2. Data Collection and Sampling

The study is exploratory and uses a non-probabilistic sampling method. To understand the relationship between tourists’ travel behaviour and their perception of sustainability, convenience sampling was used due to time and availability constraints. The chosen target population consisted of international tourists over the age of eighteen who visited Lisbon between 2018 and 2022. The time frame should have been shorter to get an actual picture of the city’s perceptions of sustainability. Yet, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer people could visit the city in the last two years, so the period was prolonged.

The data was gathered between February 2022 and March 2022, both online and on-site. The researcher shared an internet-based survey on social media and among international connections. The on-site recruitment took place at two of Lisbon’s popular landmarks in the city centre. The survey was administered to 226 travelers. However, respondents who did not visit Lisbon between 2018 and 2022 could not proceed with the questions as they did not fit the inclusion criteria for participation. Therefore, the final sample consisted of 203 tourists. Since this period was affected by several travel restrictions due to the pandemic, along with the difficulty of defining the entire population since previous statistics were not comparable, the researchers considered the option of using a convenience sampling approach.

In this study, most tourists sampled were female (67%), with the majority of the respondents being young, as 36.8% were aged between eighteen and twenty-four, and 44.1% were between twenty-five and thirty-four. More than half of them had a high degree of education: with 61.3% having completed a graduate degree. Regarding income, most participants were shown to have an average income (31.4%). When travelling, a relatively equal distribution of the interviewees travelled during all seasons or mostly in the summer, with lower percentages in the other seasons alone. 44.6% of travellers travel with friends, and 91% most frequently leave for short breaks and stay at home-sharing types of accommodation such as Airbnb (34.3%).

4. Results

The model was assessed through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), a popular research method in the social sciences, to test the previously stated relationships between variables (Figure 2). Its popularity is due to its predictive approach to evaluating complex models and its flexibility. Moreover, the software used for the research is accessible and user-friendly [32]. This study was completed via SmartPLS 3 software. The analysis consisted of a two-step procedure [33]. Firstly, the researcher rolled out the construct reliability and validity measurement to ensure the items’ quality. After careful examination, the assessment resulted in the removal of nineteen travel behaviour and fourteen perceived sustainability items. Despite the consistent elimination of items, content validity was maintained as the measures represented all the dimensions of the given constructs.

Therefore, the remaining items showed correct indicators of reliability, internal consistency reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity [33]. The individual indicator reliability was confirmed by two factors: first, all the items’ standardised factor loadings exceeded 0.7, with the lowest value being 0.79, and second, they were all significant at p < 0.001. Internal consistency reliability was also demonstrated to be positive, as all Cronbach alphas and composite reliability (CR) measures were higher than 0.7, indicating adequate reliability for the study [34].

Convergent validity was also confirmed by the average variance extracted (AVE), as the values were all above 0.5 [34]. Finally, discriminant validity was tested using two criteria. Firstly, the Fornell and Larcker criterion requires the square roots of AVE to be higher than the strongest correlation among constructs. Secondly, the heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) criterion demands values to be below 0.85 [33].

Table 1. Correlations, reliability tests, and HTMT ratios.

Path	Alpha	CR	AVE	1	2	3	4	5	6
(1) Perceived sustainability	0.700	0.808	0.516	0.723	0.552	0.528	0.37	0.238	0.299
(2) Travel behaviour	0.700	0.808	0.514	0.893	0.72	0.639	0.827	0.626	0.689
(3) Perceived value	0.923	0.945	0.813	0.679	0.929	0.902	0.615	0.487	0.529
(4) Overall satisfaction	0.947	0.962	0.862	0.377	0.496	0.72	0.936	0.734	0.842
(5) Intention to recommend	0.958	0.973	0.923	0.579	0.775	0.511	0.902	0.96	0.775
(6) Intention to revisit	0.872	0.921	0.797	0.171	0.304	0.361	0.455	0.717	0.928

Note: α Cronbach Alpha; CR Composite reliability; AVE Average variance extracted; Bolded numbers: the square roots of AVE; Below the bolded values are the correlations among constructs. Above the bolded values are the HTMT ratios.

shows the square roots of AVE in bold values, the correlations among constructs below them, and all HTMT ratios above them.

Garson [34] noted that a well-fitting formative measurement model should not display excessive multicollinearity of indicator variables. Therefore, collinearity was tested, and the results showed VIF values under three (with a maximum value of 2.642), which is the minimum to indicate collinearity among constructs. After determining the absence of collinearity, the structural model was assessed on the relevance and significance of its relationships. Firstly, the coefficient of determination (R²) was measured to study the model’s explanatory power [34]. Each endogenous construct had different R² values: intention to recommend and overall satisfaction had the highest values with 64.7% and 61.5%, respectively. Intention to revisit and perceived value scored medium values with 46.9% and 34.4%. Lower values resulted from perceived sustainability, with an R² value of 13%. However, all the constructs exceeded the minimum required value of 10% [33]. Finally, the research investigated the Stone-Gleisser Q² value through blindfolding to verify cross-validated redundancy, and for each construct, values exceeded the threshold of 0 [32]. Intention to recommend and overall satisfaction showed again the highest results with 0.58 and 0.51; they were followed by intention to revisit and perceived value (0.39; 0.26), and perceived sustainability with 0.06.

The results in

Table 2. Structural Model Assessment.

Path	Path Coefficient	Standard Errors	t Statistics	p Values
Travel behaviour → Perceived sustainability	0.361	0.066	5.436	0.000
Travel behaviour → Perceived value	0.312	0.073	4.192	0.000
Perceived sustainability → Perceived value	0.396	0.072	5.383	0.000
Perceived sustainability → Overall satisfaction	0.137	0.047	2.790	0.005
Perceived sustainability → Intention to recommend	0.034	0.061	0.557	0.578
Perceived sustainability → Intention to revisit	0.034	0.067	0.493	0.622
Perceived value → Intention to recommend	0.059	0.066	0.908	0.364
Perceived value → Intention to revisit	0.122	0.093	1.420	0.156
Perceived value → Overall satisfaction	0.705	0.065	11.249	0.000
Overall satisfaction → Intention to recommend	0.741	0.066	11.439	0.000
Overall satisfaction → Intention to recommend	0.678	0.095	6.654	0.000

support H1 and H1a. Both perceived sustainability (β = 0.361, p < 0.001), and perceived value (β = 0.312, p < 0.001) are significantly influenced by travel behavior. The relation between perceived sustainability and perceived value was also found to be positive (β = 0.396, p < 0.001), providing support to H2. Furthermore, hypothesis H2a, which tested the link between perceived sustainability and overall satisfaction, yielded positive results (β = 0.137, p < 0.05). However, H2b and H2c were not supported by the results showing p > 0.005: perceived sustainability engages negatively intending to recommend and intention to revisit.

Links between perceived value and the two dimensions of loyalty, the intention to recommend and the intention to revisit, showed negative results with p > 0.005. H3 and H3a were therefore not supported. On the contrary, perceived value has a significant positive relationship with overall satisfaction (β = 0.705, p < 0.001), lending support to H3b. Results also show that tourists’ overall satisfaction with the trip has a positive effect on their intentions to recommend (β = 0.741, p < 0.001) and revisit (β = 0.678, p < 0.001), providing support for H4 and H4a.

Specific indirect effects were tested through bootstrapping. Results are shown in

Table 3. Bootstrapping results for specific indirect effects.

Path	Estimate	Standard Errors	t Statistics	p Values
Travel behaviour → Perceived sustainability → Perceived value	0.143	0.042	3.443	0.001
Perceived sustainability → Overall satisfaction → Intention to recommend	0.101	0.038	2.624	0.009
Perceived sustainability → Overall satisfaction → Intention to revisit	0.078	0.03	2.592	0.01

. The indirect effects of travel behaviour on perceived sustainability and perceived value have been demonstrated to be significant (β = 0.143, p < 0.001), positively supporting H5. In the same way, the mediation hypotheses H6 and H6a were supported. The indirect effect of perceived sustainability on intention to recommend (β = 0.101, p < 0.001) and intention to revisit (β = 0.078, p < 0.001) was found to be positive through the mediation of overall relationship satisfaction.

Importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) was also run to extend the results of PLS-SEM to the performance of each construct. Thus, information on importance and performance can be considered together in managerial decisions to prioritise one action over another [35]. In this study, the target construct is perceived sustainability, and it is linked to five variables (travel behaviour, perceived value, overall satisfaction, intention to recommend, and intention to revisit).

Looking at the IPMA results in

Table 4. Importance-performance map analysis for perceived sustainability.

Latent Variables	Importance	Performance
(1) Travel behaviour	0.361	75.280
(2) Perceived value	0.396	86.806
(3) Overall satisfaction	0.137	88.726
(4) Intention to recommend	0.034	86.375
(5) Intention to revisit	0.034	76.146

, it is obvious that all the variables have high-performance values. Both recommendations and revisits are of very low importance because they are not statistically significant (α > 0.10). Yet they both score highly in performance, with values of 86.375 and 76.146, respectively. Additionally, despite its low importance (α = 0.137), overall satisfaction has the highest number in performance (88.726). All the results are shown in Table 4.

5. Discussion

5.1. The Importance of Tourists’ Perceived Sustainability

The literature on perceived sustainability is still scarce, particularly in the tourism field, where various definitions have been formulated. The number of dimensions used by various sustainability frameworks varied, according to the available literature. While some authors viewed it as a simple notion with one dimension, similar to the environment or society, others viewed it as a complex concept with two or more dimensions. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature on perceived sustainability in line with previous research supporting its multidimensional character, particularly the triple bottom line approach. Indeed, it reveals that the economic, environmental, and socio-cultural dimensions are representatives of the general construct. These dimensions are also reflected in the Lisbon Sustainable Tourism Plan 20–23, which has three economic, two social, and three environmental goals as its strategic sustainability propositions [36].

Moreover, this study contributes to the literature on market segmentation as research suggests that the multidimensional concept of perceived sustainability can be used as a segmentation criterion [5]. Segmentation studies are vital for creating sustainability strategies and can be used as both marketing and destination management tools. As reported in the literature, it is possible to integrate sustainability into marketing techniques to attract tourists who are already interested in protecting the environment and the destination they are visiting and consequently adopt responsible travel behaviour. This method is called selective marketing, as promotional efforts focus on targeting tourists before they arrive at the destination and can be used as a complement to sustainability strategies [29]. As one of the action lines of Portugal’s 2027 strategy is to promote itself as a sustainable destination, the national DMO is strongly oriented towards channels and collaborations useful for this purpose. Turismo de Portugal has recently started collaborating with Switzerland Tourism and the Slovenian Tourist Board, considered leaders in sustainability in Europe. Not to mention the collaboration with the GSTC certification body, Green Destinations, during ITB Berlin, with whom they are working to monitor and certify more and more sustainable destinations in the country. However, targeting sustainable travellers could mean receiving guests who are more aware of environmental, socio-cultural, and economic sustainability issues and, therefore, more demanding in terms of the offer.

The relationship between travel behaviour and the perceived sustainability of a destination has not yet been investigated. Indeed, many studies have focused on understanding how perceived sustainability influences the travel experience, satisfaction with it, loyalty to the destination, and behavioural intentions following travel. Few studies, however, have focused on investigating more deeply what factors influence perceived sustainability and how these differ from one traveller to the next. Segmentation studies of perceived sustainability to date have characterised tourists by socio-demographic or travel-related information. Only one study has attempted to divide the sample of tourists according to holiday types, not finding any significant correlation between the variables [8,10]. The novelty of this study lies in exploring the relationship between travel behaviour and perceived sustainability in order to understand the feasibility of using this characterisation in future segmentation studies.

The results show a significant relationship between travel behaviour and perceived sustainability. A descriptive analysis of the results showed that 96.1% of the respondents had more sustainable travel habits than average. These results can be explained by the sample’s young age and high level of education. Buffa [37] studied this phenomenon on 1156 members of the largest Italian association of student and youth tourism, discovering that younger generations are more environmentally conscious, which influences their travel motivations and behaviors. Ramchurjee and Suresha [13] similarly demonstrated the influence of education on stronger ecological attitudes. Moreover, the research found good results regarding perceived sustainability: 98.6% of the items for perceived sustainability scored values above average. In fact, on a five-point Likert-type scale, the lowest average grade was related to odours, i.e., “I think the odours in Lisbon are acceptable.” with a score of 3.7. Thus, in the research context, tourists engaging in sustainable travel behaviour had a high perception of the city’s sustainability levels.

The study also creates a first understanding of how this knowledge can be used as a competitive advantage for Lisbon and other tourism destinations in their marketing and managerial operations. As the city has already adopted consistent measures to tackle sustainability challenges, understanding how tourists perceive its sustainability levels has become crucial to analysing these strategies’ success in driving market-oriented improvements [29]. The conceptual framework for sustainability strategies of Sánchez-Fernández et al. [5] can be applied to the research context in all its phases. In the first phase, tourists are asked to rate how sustainable they think the destination is. In the second phase, the opinions of other stakeholders are looked into to gain a complete understanding of the context. This market research process also involves an ongoing mechanism of evaluation and control, which results in a comparison with the actual situation. The third stage is the implementation of innovative strategies that tackle sustainability issues at the destination level. In this way, as suggested by Dias et al. [38] sustainability becomes an inclusive and creative process based on the feedback of stakeholders’ perceptions and the active participation of all the stakeholders in the field.

In particular, the study’s findings showed lower values for odours, which consequently present a problem compared to the rest of the characteristics assessed in the survey. Odours can originate from different sources, one of which is waste. In 2013, the Municipal Chamber of Lisbon developed a plan for waste management with a long-term vision to be carried out by 2020. Waste was considered a resource in the strategy, and one of the fundamental pillars for the city’s sustainable development was to enhance the recovery of value through a circular economy. On the one hand, the aim was to ensure economic and social development, and on the other, to safeguard the quality of the urban environment and human health. To reach these goals, the municipality set three strategic objectives, namely the expansion of the network of waste reception centres, the enhancement of recycling through a door-to-door waste collection system and organic waste reception points, and the general reduction of waste production [39].

5.2. The Influence of Perceived Sustainability on the Tourism Experience

The present study presents a theoretical model that tests the relationship between perceived sustainability and perceived value, overall satisfaction with the trip, and the two dimensions of loyalty, namely the intentions to recommend and revisit. This research is based on and broadens previous literature on the connection between sustainability and value. Meise and Phillips [40] analysed how sustainability information contributes to product differentiation in terms of price and value. Communication efforts are vital to a sustainability strategy, yet many companies fail to be transparent on product provenance and supply chains, resulting in consumers’ mistrust. This analysis showed that the presence of sustainability-related information corresponds to the attribution of value, resulting in consumers’ willingness to pay more.

In the tourism field, the relationship between perceived sustainability and perceived value also proved significant [12,23,27]. This research extends these findings to the context of European Green Capitals, confirming that the value perceived by tourists determines the extent to which perceived sustainability is a competitive advantage for destinations. Moreover, this is the first study to explore the link between travel behaviour and perceived value. In the sample of data analysed, high scores of perceived value corresponded to above-average sustainable travel behaviour. The mediating role of perceived sustainability was also significant in this relationship, showing that the most sustainable travellers perceive a high value of the destination when they also perceive high levels of sustainability. In the research context, these findings can guide the implementation of selective marketing strategies.

Perceived value is also considered a key driver of competitiveness due to its direct influence on tourists’ satisfaction [22,23,25,26,27]. Strengthening previous research on the topic, the results of this study showed a positive correlation between the two variables. In contrast, the literature review on the link between perceived sustainability and satisfaction showed mixed results, as Guizzardi et al. [12] found no significant correlation and Iniesta-Bonillo et al. [23] conducted. Therefore, the present study confirms the findings of Iniesta-Bonillo et al. [23], as a correlation exists between perceived sustainability and satisfaction.

The perception of high sustainability standards in a tourist destination is not sufficient to guarantee loyalty. Based on Guizzardi et al. [12], this study confirms the absence of a significant direct link between perceived sustainability, intention to recommend, and intention to revisit. According to previous research [26,27], a direct relationship between perceived value and the two dimensions of loyalty has been postulated. However, both proved to be non-significant: Lisbon’s high perceived value as a tourist destination does not directly translate into behavioural loyalty intentions. The only driver of loyalty in the research context was satisfaction, as the direct links between overall satisfaction and intention to recommend and revisit tested significantly. Moreover, satisfaction also plays an essential role as a mediating variable. Perceived sustainability can only lead to the intention to recommend and revisit if tourists are satisfied with their holidays.

Incorporating sustainability into tourism development strategies has proven its worth not only to protect the destination itself and its natural and cultural heritage but also for its influence on the key elements of destination competitiveness. As was found in the results, the perception of a sustainably managed destination influences tourists’ satisfaction with the trip, and satisfaction is a key driver of loyalty. Achieving consumer loyalty is one of the most coveted goals of any company due to its high profitability. Serving familiar consumers requires lower costs and less effort. Moreover, brand awareness is higher, consumers become ambassadors of that brand and the values it represents through positive word of mouth. Therefore, this study could motivate management organisations to justify the costs of changing their ways of doing things.

This advantage for companies has already been demonstrated by the TUI Group’s 2017 analysis of 330 hotels holding sustainability certifications. Results showed that certified sustainable hotels deliver higher customer satisfaction as well as better environmental, social, and economic performance for the businesses themselves. The data found a consistent reduction in emissions and waste, with a consequent decrease in energy expenditure. Moreover, the percentage of green energy used and the number of local employees both increased [41]. On the other hand, Bernini et al. [9] found that sustainability provided less satisfaction than other aspects of the holiday, showing that focusing on this aspect to develop a new strategy might not work if tourists do not prioritise it when choosing a destination. In this case, the study focused on Rimini, a mature destination in Italy characterised by mass tourism, where a transition to sustainable tourism management could help to “regenerate and rejuvenate stagnant or declining tourism flows” through new tourism products. Therefore, this study also highlighted the importance of communication in sustaining best practices, as tourists need to be aware of sustainability initiatives to consider them in their evaluation.

In conclusion, as sustainable tourism is not a niche market anymore, destinations and companies should adapt to the new scenario. To this end, DMOs should turn to the tourists and investigate their perceptions as a tool for continuous feedback and the planning of marketing activities. Being sustainable is not enough to be perceived as such; therefore, it is essential to communicate the destination in different ways to diverse targets to generate greater awareness and understanding of the place’s value as a sustainable destination.

6. Conclusions

The definition of sustainable tourism has undergone several theoretical conceptualisations since the 1990s, culminating in the current widespread understanding of harmonious coexistence between three subjects: people, planet, and profit. However, the global climate crisis and its environmental threat highlight the importance of tourism action, from both the business and the consumer’s perspective. Several international organisations tried to create a global sustainability assessment with their model, standards, and criteria, but the process has been complex due to the diversity characterising destinations worldwide and their different stages of tourism and sustainable development. The GSTC was created in 2010 and became a benchmark for sustainability measurement, with more and more countries willing to make a change in their management operations.

Today, sustainability has become a trend that conceals the danger of greenwashing, a practise in which misleading information is provided to create a false sustainable image of a company or destination. Therefore, sustainable destinations need to go beyond communication to further prove to tourists the importance of their sustainable initiatives to gain a real competitive advantage. As travellers base their decisions on perceptions rather than tangible facts, destinations must evaluate their perceptions of sustainability and understand what factors influence the final feedback. For this reason, the present study investigated the relationship between travel behaviour and perceived sustainability to explore the possibility of using it as a variable for market segmentation. Moreover, this study aimed at reinforcing the importance of perceived sustainability in the overall tourism experience by testing its relationship with perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty.

The quantitative analysis was carried out in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal. Lisbon was nominated a European Green Capital in 2020 and has been carrying out sustainability initiatives for the past ten years, starting with its impressive reduction in CO₂ emissions and its following improvements in green energy, waste management, and alternative transportation. This survey was distributed to 203 international tourists, and the relationships between constructs were tested through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings showed a correlation between travel behaviour and perceived sustainability, paving the way for further market segmentation studies where tourists are clustered according to their travel behaviour. Perceived sustainability also positively influenced perceived value and satisfaction, while it did not influence behavioural intention to recommend and revisit. In addition, the perceived value was investigated, and the results show a significant relationship with satisfaction. Satisfaction proved to be the only driver of loyalty, even when considered as a mediating variable between perceived sustainability and intentions to recommend and revisit.

This study builds on past literature on perceived sustainability for several reasons. First, it extends the line of work that supports the multidimensionality of the construct of perceived sustainability using the environmental, socio-cultural, and economic dimensions. Second, it expands the research on market segmentation by confirming a relationship between travel behaviour and perceived sustainability and between travel behaviour and perceived value, which have never been investigated before. Third, the analysis broadens the scope of the research to the context of European Green Capitals, which presents completely different characteristics from the other destinations studied in the previous literature.

Three further practical implications can be drawn from this study. Understanding tourists’ perceptions are essential to analysing sustainability strategies, promoting market-oriented improvements, or including new projects based on the feedback received. Marketing efforts can also target specific groups of tourists based on their perceptions, e.g., by promoting the destination’s best-perceived assets. Furthermore, as travellers’ perceptions vary greatly from one tourist to another, selective marketing strategies could ensure more accurate communications and better rates of return on investment. To summarize, a high perception of sustainability is a competitive advantage for destinations not only because it influences value perception, satisfaction, and indirectly loyalty intentions, but also because travellers are becoming increasingly aware of and demanding sustainability. In a world scarred by the climate crisis, tourism companies must become more sustainable, if not for the good of the planet then for the good of their businesses.

This study has several limitations that should be addressed in future research. It is essential to underline that the research has an exploratory nature and is aimed at finding a link between travel behaviour and perceived sustainability as a preliminary stage for characterising market segmentation studies further. As of now, studies using perceived sustainability as a market segmentation criterion mostly use sociodemographic and trip-related information, and only one study characterises tourists according to their type. Therefore, investigating how travel behaviour influences perceptions of a destination’s sustainability would offer an unexplored perspective to the literature on the subject.

Moreover, the findings must be cautiously interpreted for three main reasons: First of all, results are based on perceptual data, which is “highly subjective, situational and dependent on people’s needs, values and expectations” Sánchez-Fernández et al., 2019 [5]. Second, the analysis used convenience sampling, given the need to have a reasonable number of responses within a limited time frame. Further studies should use probability sampling procedures, as they allow one to statistically estimate the target population from the research sample [42]. Thirdly, the time frame used in the inclusion criteria did not allow for an accurate representation of the actual situation in the city but only provided a general image of the last five years. In order to use data as feedback for sustainability initiatives, future research should refer to the present and use on-site data collection to get a clearer picture of a specific moment. In this way, tourists would have a fresh memory of their perceptions that could be recalled immediately.

Another limitation is represented by the perceived sustainability scale used in the measurement, which should be refined in future studies. The scale was taken from Sánchez-Fernández et al. [5], where it was used as a preliminary stage scale that could not yet be generalised to every type of destination. For instance, Guizzardi et al. [12] proved how rural areas require adopting a scale consistent with the specific research context, as some items of the universal model are not relevant everywhere. Different types of destinations have different assets to evaluate and are in various stages of sustainable development. Therefore, the scale of perceived sustainability should be adapted to each of them accordingly.

Finally, as the respondents were asked to indicate their sustainable behaviour, the answers could be influenced by social desirability biases. Juvan and Dolnicar’s [14] analyses of the measurement of environmentally friendly tourist behaviour found that the only optimal measure is the actual behaviour. In fact, using prompted closed questions increases the risk of social desirability bias contaminating responses, resulting in less accurate results on real tourist behavior. Thus, future studies should prefer behavioural observation or unprompted open-ended questions together with items measuring the respondents’ tendency to feel social desirability when referring to environmental topics.

As the present study was exploratory, future research should further investigate these variables to understand how tourists can be segmented according to their different perceptions of sustainability and how their travel behaviour influences them. Therefore, a latent class analysis should be conducted to use the results as guidelines for management and marketing activities. In order to fully adopt the conceptual framework for sustainability strategies of Sánchez-Fernández et al. [5], studies should collect data on the sustainability perceptions of residents and service providers to compare the different perspectives and get a comprehensive view of the overall situation. This process would also be useful for the DMOs and the municipality, which would receive inclusive feedback on their sustainable operations.