A new study from the University of Surrey, published in the Journal of Travel Research, shows that tourists who adopt sustainable behaviors during their holidays tend to revert to old habits after returning home. However, weekly reminders from a chatbot may change this pattern, triggering long-term behavior change and encouraging continued sustainable living upon returning to their home country.
The researchers tested the concept of “flashback prompts,” in which a chatbot sent weekly reminders to tourists who had visited the ecologically regulated Gili Islands in Indonesia, asking them to reflect on their environmentally friendly behaviors during the vacation. The results showed that, compared to the control group, tourists who received reminders were significantly more likely to use sustainable transportation at home. This suggests that revisiting memories of one's own eco-friendly actions can strengthen environmental identity and influence future behavior.
The study lasted six weeks and tracked two groups of participants: one group visited the Gili Islands and received reminders about their eco-actions, while the other group did not visit the islands and only received educational reminders. The findings revealed clear and persistent differences between the two groups in the use of eco-friendly transportation, with the difference being most pronounced in the final week of the study, highlighting the importance of patience in behavior change.
Co-author Professor Iis Tussyadiah, Dean of the Surrey Business School at the University of Surrey, stated that people often assume that nature-focused holidays lead to good intentions upon return, but these intentions fade quickly. Reminding people of what they have already done—such as riding a bicycle instead of driving—can reignite the corresponding behavior. The key lies in memory rather than motivation.
Another co-author, Dr. Jason Chen, Associate Professor of Tourism and Events Management at the University of Surrey, noted that what makes this study unique is its use of scalable and low-cost technology. Previous behavior change interventions often required face-to-face participation, whereas this study uses conversational chatbots, making it easy for tourism boards or governments to implement on a large scale.
In addition, the study revealed changes over time in emotional responses such as guilt and psychological concepts like environmental self-identity. It found that participants who were reminded of their own behaviors experienced reduced guilt and greater confidence in their environmental values—a crucial shift for sustaining long-term behavior change.
