Bridging the Intention-Behaviour Gap in Sustainable Tourism: Insights from Hotel Buffet Food Waste Interventions

This paper addresses the persistent intention-behavior gap in sustainable tourism, focusing on buffet-related food waste in hospitality contexts. Despite travellers’ growing environmental awareness, large amounts of edible produce remain discarded, highlighting the need for targeted interventions. This study employed a mixed-methods design based on an interdisciplinary framework integrating sociological, managerial, and technological perspectives. First, a survey experiment with 450 respondents investigated whether cognitive (belief-based) or hedonic messaging more effectively heightened pro-environmental intentions. Subsequently, a field experiment with 1200 guests at a Mediterranean hotel examined whether these messaging strategies reduced actual plate waste. While cognitive messaging significantly increased stated intentions in the experimental survey, neither intervention yielded meaningful reductions in real-world waste. Observational data underscored the influence of situational factors, such as buffet abundance, social norms, and group dynamics, on consumption practices. The results reveal that heightened awareness alone cannot overcome entrenched habits, underscoring the need for multi-level approaches that integrate messaging with tangible managerial and technological tools. These insights provide a valid insight to inform practical recommendations, illustrating how hotels and tourism stakeholders can more effectively align sustainability intentions with on-site behaviours to curb food waste. Bridging the gap requires sensitivity and stakeholder engagement.