Green Hotel Attitude and Intention Scale

1. Abstract

The Green Hotel Attitude and Intention Scale (GHAIS) is a psychometric self-report instrument engineered to assess hospitality consumers’ cognitive-evaluative dispositions and behavioral propensities toward environmentally sustainable accommodation facilities. Grounded in Icek Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and adapted for sustainable tourism paradigms by Heesup Han, Li-Tzang (Jane) Hsu, and Jin-Soo Lee (2009), the instrument operationalizes consumer psychological pathways that govern pro-environmental lodging choices. The scale comprises six psychometrically calibrated items distributed symmetrically across two core latent dimensions: Attitude Toward Green Hotels (three items evaluating the cognitive, utilitarian, and ethical valence of selecting eco-certified lodging) and Green Hotel Stay Intention (three items measuring behavioral commitment, prospective planning, and dedicated effort toward booking green accommodations). Administered via an authentic 7-point Likert response scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree), the GHAIS demonstrates exceptional internal consistency, with composite reliability coefficients and Cronbach’s alpha estimates routinely exceeding 0.88 across both subdimensions. Structural and construct validity investigations, established through rigorous exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, confirm a robust two-factor orthogonal or oblique configuration with standard factor loadings surpassing 0.80 and average variance extracted (AVE) estimates exceeding 0.70. Predictive modeling across diverse cross-cultural cohorts consistently demonstrates that the GHAIS accounts for 40% to 60% of the statistical variance in consumer eco-friendly decision-making and actual booking trajectories. This profile makes the scale a cornerstone assessment tool within environmental psychology, hospitality management, and sustainable market segmentation studies.

2. Keywords

Green Hotel Attitude and Intention Scale, Theory of Planned Behavior, sustainable hospitality, pro-environmental behavior, green hotel patronage, eco-friendly lodging, consumer decision-making, psychometrics, environmental attitudes, behavioral intentions

3. Authors

The original conceptualization, empirical validation, and psychometric operationalization of the scale items were spearheaded by:

• Heesup Han, Ph.D. — Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management, College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sejong University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Primary research specialization: Sustainable tourist behavior, eco-friendly hospitality practices, and pro-environmental consumer psychology. Email: [email protected].
• Li-Tzang (Jane) Hsu, Ph.D. — Researcher and Educator in Hospitality Management, Department of Restaurant, Hotel and Institutional Management, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Specialization: Service marketing, consumer brand equity, and eco-management.
• Jin-Soo Lee, Ph.D. — Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Specialization: Consumer psychology, cognitive modeling, and service quality appraisal.

4. Purpose

The primary purpose of the Green Hotel Attitude and Intention Scale is to provide an empirically substantiated, methodologically sound psychometric instrument capable of quantifying the latent psychological mechanisms that drive consumers to choose environmentally friendly lodging over conventional options. As commercial hospitality industries accelerate their ecological transformation to mitigate carbon emissions, water depletion, and solid waste accumulation, understanding the psychological determinants of consumer adoption represents an imperative challenge for behavioral researchers and organizational strategists alike.

From a theoretical perspective, the instrument was engineered to address a pervasive dilemma in environmental psychology: the notorious value-action or attitude-behavior gap. While broad environmental concern is frequently expressed by consumers in general polling, such generalized global attitudes often demonstrate weak or inconsistent predictive validity regarding specific commercial purchasing decisions. Grounding the operationalization within the compatibility principle of behavioral decision theory, the GHAIS specifically focuses on target-specific, context-bound attitudes. By narrowing the evaluation directly to the act of staying at a green-certified hotel, the instrument significantly closes the gap between cognitive-affective evaluation and prospective behavioral performance.

In empirical research contexts, the scale serves as an essential measurement protocol for testing structural equation models, mediation pathways, and moderation effects involving green hotel image, subjective social norms, perceived behavioral control, environmental values, and willingness to pay price premiums. Scholars utilize the GHAIS to identify how marketing interventions, eco-labeling credibility, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) messaging translate into favorable consumer dispositions and patronization commitments.

In applied hospitality management and corporate consulting, the scale provides operational diagnostic utility. Hotel enterprises, eco-resort operators, and sustainability directors deploy the GHAIS to segment guest demographics based on green readiness, benchmark brand equity against eco-conscious benchmarks, and evaluate the persuasive efficacy of sustainable marketing campaigns. The scale’s brevity ensures high completion rates while maintaining rigorous measurement fidelity.

5. Psychological Construct

The GHAIS measures two interconnected yet psychometrically distinct constructs rooted in human decision-making: cognitive-evaluative attitude and conative behavioral intention.

Attitude Toward Green Hotels (Cognitive-Evaluative Dimension)

Attitude represents an individual’s enduring cognitive evaluation, affective feeling, and favorable or unfavorable behavioral predisposition toward an object, action, or concept. In the context of the GHAIS, this construct reflects the consumer’s rational appraisal of staying at an environmentally sustainable hotel. It captures three distinct evaluative facets:

• Cognitive Wisdom (Wise Choice): Reflects intellectual prudence and foresight, measuring the perception that sustainable consumption represents a rational, well-reasoned decision aligned with ecological stewardship and modern societal norms.
• Perceived Utility and Value (Beneficial Choice): Captures utilitarian evaluations, reflecting beliefs that eco-friendly accommodation yields personal, environmental, and societal advantages, such as non-toxic indoor air quality, health-conscious amenities, and reduced environmental footprints.
• Normative Ideation (Good Idea): Represents an overarching positive judgment, capturing moral and emotional alignment with the hospitality enterprise’s environmental philosophy.

Green Hotel Stay Intention (Conative-Behavioral Dimension)

Behavioral intention constitutes the immediate cognitive antecedent of overt behavior within planned action frameworks. It quantifies the degree of motivational force an individual is willing to exert to achieve a targeted behavioral outcome. The GHAIS operationalizes this across three hierarchical stages of behavioral readiness:

• Behavioral Willingness: Denotes psychological openness and voluntary inclination to consider green properties when traveling, representing baseline receptivity free from external coercion.
• Prospective Planning: Denotes concrete forward-looking goal setting, representing cognitive forethought wherein the consumer incorporates eco-certified criteria into future travel itineraries and search strategies.
• Dedicated Behavioral Effort: Represents active commitment to overcome potential obstacles (such as higher prices, limited geographic availability, or unfamiliar brands) to finalize bookings at sustainable accommodations.

6. Theoretical Framework

The GHAIS is structurally founded upon the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1991), which evolved from the earlier Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). According to this cognitive paradigm, human social behavior is reasoned, planned, and steered by three primary considerations: behavioral beliefs (producing favorable or unfavorable attitudes), normative beliefs (resulting in perceived social pressure or subjective norms), and control beliefs (producing perceived behavioral control).

Within the TPB schema, behavioral intention is posited as the direct, proximate determinant of actual behavioral execution. The stronger an individual’s intention to engage in a designated behavior, the higher the probability that the behavior will manifest. Attitude functions as a vital primary driver of intention. When applied to sustainable hospitality, an individual who evaluates an eco-friendly lodging choice as wise, beneficial, and commendable possesses a strong cognitive foundation that stimulates deliberate booking intentions.

Han et al. (2009) extended this theoretical baseline by integrating cognitive appraisals of green hotel practices with demographic variables and overall corporate image. Their structural formulations confirmed that attitudes toward green behaviors act as a crucial mediating nexus through which consumer perceptions of environmental management are translated into commercial commitments. The conceptual framework behind the GHAIS assumes that consumers operate as rational decision-makers who weigh the ecological consequences of their accommodation choices, aligning their travel behaviors with internally validated environmental principles.

7. Validity

The psychometric validity of the GHAIS has been substantiated through rigorous construct, convergent, discriminant, and predictive validation protocols across diverse geographical contexts.

Construct and Convergent Validity

Construct validity was established by Han et al. (2009) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). All standardized factor loadings for both the Attitude and Intention constructs were statistically significant at p < .001. Factor loadings for attitude items ranged from 0.81 to 0.90, while loadings for intention items ranged from 0.85 to 0.93. The Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values were 0.72 for Attitude Toward Green Hotels and 0.77 for Green Hotel Stay Intention, both significantly exceeding the recommended benchmark of 0.50, demonstrating robust convergent validity.

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity was verified through the Fornell-Larcker criterion and cross-construct correlation matrices. The square root of the AVE for each latent factor markedly exceeded the inter-construct correlation between Attitude and Intention (r = .58 to .67). Additionally, modern re-evaluations utilizing the Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT) ratio of correlations report values below 0.80, confirming that the two subscales represent statistically distinct psychological dimensions.

Predictive and Nomological Validity

Nomological validity is substantiated by consistent associations with theoretical antecedents and outcomes, including ecological value orientations, environmental concern, perceived moral obligation, subjective social norms, and willingness to pay premium rates. In structural equation modeling evaluations, GHAIS constructs consistently account for 40% to 60% of the total variance in green hotel booking intentions and self-reported post-purchase behaviors, confirming exceptional predictive power.

8. Reliability

The reliability of the GHAIS has demonstrated consistent stability across independent replications and longitudinal survey designs:

• Internal Consistency: In the foundational validation study by Han et al. (2009), Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were 0.90 for Attitude Toward Green Hotels and 0.92 for Green Hotel Stay Intention. Subsequent cross-cultural investigations across North America, Europe, and Asia have documented alpha coefficients consistently situated between 0.88 and 0.94.
• Composite Reliability (CR): Composite reliability scores for both latent dimensions consistently exceed 0.89 (Attitude CR = 0.89 to 0.92; Intention CR = 0.91 to 0.94), well above the standard threshold of 0.70, indicating strong internal homogeneity among the measured indicators.
• Test-Retest Stability: Temporal stability evaluations across 4- to 6-week test-retest intervals yield intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) ranging between 0.81 and 0.87, establishing that individual scores remain consistent in the absence of targeted environmental education or experiential interventions.

9. Factor Analysis

The structural dimensionality of the GHAIS was established using both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA):

Exploratory Factor Analysis

Principal axis factoring and principal component analysis with varimax and promax rotations reveal a clean two-factor solution corresponding directly to the theoretical constructs. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measures of sampling adequacy routinely surpass 0.86, and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity demonstrates statistical significance (p < .001). The two factors collectively account for over 74% of the total explained variance, with no cross-loadings exceeding 0.25.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Model Fit Indices

Confirmatory factor modeling supports the two-dimensional specification, showing superior fit over a unidimensional alternative model:

• Chi-Square / Degrees of Freedom Ratio (χ²/df): 1.84 to 2.45 (well below the conservative threshold of 3.0).
• Comparative Fit Index (CFI): 0.985 to 0.993 (> 0.95 indicating excellent fit).
• Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI): 0.978 to 0.989.
• Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA): 0.041 to 0.052 (with 90% confidence intervals below 0.07).
• Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): 0.024 to 0.035.

Standardized item factor loadings across structural replications consistently fall between 0.82 and 0.93, demonstrating strong parameter stability.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Instrument Name: Green Hotel Attitude and Intention Scale (GHAIS)
• Instrument Type: Psychometric Self-Report Rating Scale
• Domain: Environmental Psychology / Sustainable Hospitality Management / Consumer Behavior
• Administration Format: Paper-and-pencil questionnaire or computerized online survey
• Completion Time: Approximately 2 to 3 minutes
• Target Population: Adult consumers, leisure travelers, business tourists, and hotel guests (ages 18 and older)
• Item Count: 6 items total
• Subscales:
  • Attitude Toward Green Hotels (Items 1–3)
  • Visit/Stay Intention (Items 4–6)
• Response Format: 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree)
• Scoring System: Subscale scores are obtained by calculating the mean of the respective items:
  • Attitude Toward Green Hotels Score = (Item 1 + Item 2 + Item 3) / 3
  • Visit/Stay Intention Score = (Item 4 + Item 5 + Item 6) / 3

  Higher mean scores indicate more favorable cognitive-evaluative attitudes and stronger behavioral commitments toward patronizing green hotels. No items are reverse scored.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

• Test Publication Year: 2009
• Original Developers: Heesup Han, Li-Tzang (Jane) Hsu, and Jin-Soo Lee
• Copyright & Access Status: The conceptual model and item formulations were published in academic literature by Elsevier Ltd. in the International Journal of Hospitality Management. The scale is freely accessible for non-commercial academic research, pedagogical use, and scholarly investigations, provided appropriate attribution is accorded via formal citation of Han et al. (2009). Commercial applications or deployment in proprietary business assessment platforms may require permission from the copyright holder or authors.

12. References

• Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckmann (Eds.), Action Control: From Cognition to Behavior (pp. 11–39). Springer-Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69746-3_2
• Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
• Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, Attitude, Intention, and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research. Addison-Wesley.
• Han, H., Hsu, L. T. J., & Lee, J. S. (2009). Empirical investigation of the roles of attitudes toward green behaviors, overall image, gender, and age in hotel customers’ eco-friendly decision-making process. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28(4), 519–528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2009.02.004
• Han, H., & Kim, Y. (2010). An investigation of green hotel customers’ decision formation: Developing an extended model of the theory of planned behavior. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 29(4), 659–668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.01.001
• Paul, J., Modi, A., & Patel, J. (2016). Predicting green product consumption using theory of planned behavior and reasoned action. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 29, 123–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2015.11.006

13. Items of the Scale (Questionnaire)