CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF ENVIRONMENT KNOWLEDGE, GREENWASHING FEAR, ATTITUDE AND LOYALTY IN MALAYSIA’S GREEN HOTELS

Environmental sustainability has become an increasingly important concern in the global tourism and hospitality industry. In response to growing environmental awareness and consumer demand for eco-friendly services, green hotels have emerged as a strategic approach to minimizing environmental impact while maintaining guest loyalty. Despite various sustainability initiatives and certification programs, the adoption of green hotels in Malaysia remains limited, particularly in terms of customer loyalty and long-term engagement. This conceptual paper aims to explore the psychological mechanisms that influence green loyalty among Malaysian hotel consumers. Specifically, it proposes a conceptual model in which environmental knowledge and fear of greenwashing serve as predictors, environmental attitude functions as the mediator, and green loyalty is the behavioral outcome. The framework is grounded in the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory, which provides a structured understanding of how external stimuli (knowledge and trust concerns) are processed internally (attitude) to result in behavioral responses (loyalty). By integrating constructs commonly examined in isolation into a single model, this study contributes to the theoretical development of green consumer behavior in the tourism and hospitality context. It also provides practical implications for hotel managers and policymakers seeking to foster environmentally responsible consumer behavior and strengthen trust in green hotel initiatives. Future research is encouraged to empirically validate the proposed model using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS SEM).