Telling Stories: Harnessing Storytelling to Promote Sustainable Behaviors Among Hotel Guests

초록

Hotels increasingly acknowledge the significance of environmental sustainability, integrating green initiatives into their operations. Drawing from the successes of storytelling as an engagement strategy, this study explores storytelling's effectiveness as an engagement strategy for promoting towel reuse among hotel guests. With a scenario-based experimental design involving 413 participants across “hero,” “horror,” “learning,” and control groups, the research reveals that while storytelling did not significantly boost participants' belief in the environmental benefits of towel reuse, it offers valuable insights into storytelling efficacy and demographic variances. Women exhibited a stronger belief than men. However, employing a “horror” approach notably influenced men to embrace towel reuse. In addition, business travelers showed a greater belief in storytelling effectiveness compared to leisure travelers. The study recommends hotels tailor storytelling as a targeted green engagement strategy to enhance guests' participation in environmental sustainability initiatives. © 2026 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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