Fuzzy Assessment of Sustainable and Responsible Tourism: Tourist Behaviour in South India

This study proposes a framework to assess responsible tourist behaviour at tourist destinations. It gives a dual contribution to the body of knowledge. First, the framework proposed in the study helps to identify the pro-environmental behaviour tourists are passive to adopt. Second, the suggested framework can be used as a toolkit for periodic evaluation of responsible tourist behaviour at various destinations and help authorities benchmark and improve through appropriate interventions. The data containing the evaluations of a judgemental panel of experts on responsible tourism attributes were analyzed using fuzzy logic methodology. The results suggest that in southern India there needs to be greater sensitization towards green protocol, biodiversity, marine life, heritage preservation, protection of human rights, local culture and enforcing adherence to regulations through external interventions. The same approach and framework can be used at other tourist destinations to identify the sustainable and responsible behaviour tourists are passive to adopt. The factors influencing SRT behaviour and how governmental interventions can moderate the relationships are not explored in this study. In future, more researches can be carried out in this area to enhance the existing body of knowledge.