Abstract

Aimed growing global concern for sustainability, green consumption has become an important topic in tourism research, influencing both industry practices and tourist behavior. Yet tourists’ preferences for green tourism products are inherently complex and context-dependent, requiring trade-offs among multiple attributes such as price, quality, and environmental performance. This study explores tourists’ preferences for green tourism packages and the underlying price-response mechanisms in a multi-attribute context. Based on random utility theory, this study develops a discrete choice experiment incorporating accommodation type, food sourcing, environmental certification, energy management, and ecological education. A multinomial logit model, an interaction-augmented model, and a mixed logit model are then employed to analyze preference structures, price effects, and heterogeneity. The results show that green attributes have heterogeneous effects. Environmental certification, high-end accommodation, and immersive ecological experiences significantly increase choice likelihood, whereas certain energy management measures and attributes involving additional participation costs have negative effects. Price effects are attribute-dependent: it reinforces preference for hedonic attributes but increases sensitivity to functional attributes. Significant preference heterogeneity is also identified, particularly in price responses. This study extends the application of discrete choice applications to a multi-attribute green tourism context. It provides new evidence on the role of preference heterogeneity in explaining the attitude-behavior gap, with important implications for product design and pricing strategies.

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