Development and validation of the low-carbon literacy in the Taiwanese tourism industry

This study draws on tourism literature to develop a new low-carbon literacy (LCL) scale that highlights the importance of this issue among tourism practitioners and the tourism industry. It is important for tourists to develop greater low-carbon literacy. However, few studies have comprehensively examined the impact of literacy on changes in the tourism industry, and empirical research on the critical attributes of low-carbon literacy from the perspective of tourists and tourism experts is lacking. This study seeks to fill this gap by constructing a new theoretical model and testing it in the tourism sector. The reliability and validity of the scale are examined with exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, using samples collected from 638 tourism practitioners (23 tourism experts, 214 college students majoring in tourism and 401 tourism industry practitioners). The results identify seven critical attributes of low-carbon literacy (LCL): knowledge of low-carbon issues, ecological concepts, attitudes and values, sensitivity, locus of control, action intent and action strategy. Implications for theoretical and practical applications are also discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.