The effect of environmental awareness on green product purchasing behavior in the scope of ecotourism: The case of Antalya

Ecotourism destinations are becoming popular to meet the tourists' demands interested in environmental and natural experiences. However, the popularity can harm the sustainable development of ecotourism destinations in environmental terms such as environmental pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, crowdedness, increasing population, increased consumption. Therefore, it is important to have tourists who are environmentally friendly, environmentally conscious and knowledgeable about ecotourism in order to ensure the sustainability of ecotourism destinations. It is expected that tourists will be aware of environmental aspects in terms of the widespread use of green products focused on environmental protection. The aim of the research in this context is to determine the relationship between environmental awareness and green product purchasing behavior in the scope of ecotourism and to reveal the effect of environmental awareness on green product purchasing behavior. In the study, data were collected from 454 people between 10 April 2021 and 22 June 2022 with a questionnaire using the quantitative research method. The population of the research consists of domestic tourists visiting the province of Antalya. The sample of the research is the domestic tourists visiting the province of Antalya, which is reached in numbers to represent the universe. Convenience sampling method was used in the research, which is a screening model. The questionnaire used as a data collection tool consists of four parts. The first part is the part that includes questions about demographic characteristics. In the second, third and fourth parts, environmental awareness, green product purchasing behavior and green accommodation purchasing behavior scales are included, respectively. The data obtained with the questionnaire were analyzed and interpreted by using the statistical package program and subjected to analyzes suitable for the purpose of the research. Correlation and regression analyzes were also performed depending on the established hypotheses. As a result of the correlation analysis, it was determined that there was a low and medium relationship between the variables. Accordingly, as the level of environmental awareness increases, the level of green product purchasing behavior and green accommodation purchasing behavior also increases. In addition, as green product purchasing behavior increases, green accommodation purchasing behavior also increases. As a result of the regression analysis, environmental awareness has a significant effect on green purchasing behavior and green accommodation purchasing behavior; It has been determined that green purchasing behavior also has a significant effect on green accommodation purchasing behavior. In this context, the H1, H2 and H3 hypotheses developed within the scope of the research were accepted.