Sustainable Tourism Attitude and Preference in Italian Adults: Value Orientation and Psychological Need Satisfaction

Sustainability became a leading concept in tourism development practice and research.Several studies have shown the relationship between sustainability choices and value orientation.However, there is a lack of studies that explore how autonomous motivation, based on the satisfactionof the basic psychological needs, might predict sustainability attitudes and preference. The presentstudy aims to explore the relationship between attitudes towards sustainable tourism, preferencefor a sustainable stay, values orientation, and psychological need satisfaction in Italian adults,testing the hypothesis that also basic needs satisfaction and tourist preferences should contributeto increasing a positive attitude toward sustainable tourism. Participants are 142 Italian adults(M = 42,11 years, 80% women). This research used the online survey method collection and snowballstrategy recruitment. The results showed that participants have a high level of attitude and preferencetowards sustainable tourism. Correlation indicated that there is a positive association betweenpositive attitudes towards sustainable tourism, self-transcendence, and basic psychological needsatisfaction. Furthermore, regression revealed that psychological basic need satisfaction, preferencefor a sustainable stay and value orientation explain people’s attitudes towards sustainable tourism.These findings imply more attention may be needed to psychological needs to understand how peoplemight deal with environmental sustainability.