Liu Yanying and Shantini Thuraiselvam

Abstract: Tourists’ sustainable behaviours are essential to conserving cultural heritage sites and sustaining heritage tourism. The present study expanded the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to analyse the factors influencing cultural heritage tourists’ sustainable behaviour and compared the changes in these factors during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 400 and 403 valid responses were collected respectively at the Confucius site in Qufu City during and after the pandemic. Subsequently, partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was conducted to test the model and verify the hypotheses. The results demonstrate that the impact of tourists’ attitudes on sustainable behavioural intentions was more significant in the post-COVID-19 period, whereas the impact on perceived behavioural control was more significant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Personal norms and past behaviours also significantly impacted tourists’ sustainable behavioural intentions. While tourists’ subjective norms significantly impacted personal norms, no significant impact was found on sustainable behavioural intentions. In summary, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of cultural heritage tourists’ sustainable behaviours and practical insights for tourism site managers regarding sustainable development and management.

Keywords: Sustainable behaviour, cultural heritage tourism, theory of planned behaviour, tourist, COVID-19