Social media and place based attachment as pathways to environmentally responsible coastal tourism

Coastal tourism provides important economic benefits while also placing environmental pressures on fragile beach and marine ecosystems. Therefore, encouraging tourists' environmentally responsible behaviour (TERB) is essential for promoting sustainable coastal tourism and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study uses the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework to develop and test an integrated model that connects sustainability-oriented social media user-generated content (SMUGC), environmental dispositions, and place-based attachments to TERB. Data were collected from 432 tourists visiting nine beaches along the Karnataka coast of India and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that both cognitive (informativeness and credibility) and affective (emotional and aesthetic) triggers of SMUGC strongly improve tourists' environmental concern and environmental attitude. These environmental dispositions, in turn, positively influence TERB. Furthermore, place attachment and cultural attachment exert strong direct effects on environmentally responsible behaviour. The proposed model accounts for 57.7% of the variance in TERB, showing strong explanatory power. By integrating digital media stimuli with environmental psychology and place-based attachments, this study advances sustainability-oriented tourism research and provides valuable insights for destination managers and policymakers. The results highlight the importance of combining sustainability-focused social media communication with attachment-building tourism experiences to promote responsible tourist behaviour and enhance the resilience of coastal socio-ecological systems.