Advocacy without action: Gender asymmetry in destination advocacy and pro environmental behaviour among ecotourists in Ghana

Abstract

Tourism research typically treats destination advocacy and pro environmental behaviour as parallel expressions of the same underlying commitment. This study shows that the two diverge by gender in a way current theory does not predict. Survey data from 348 visitors to Ghanaian ecotourism sites (170 male, 178 female) show that male tourists report substantially higher destination advocacy than female tourists (M = 3.61 vs 3.38, t = 2.74, p = .006, d = 0.29), while the gender gap in environmentally friendly behaviour is small and only marginally significant (d = 0.18) and the gap in revisit intention is negligible (d = 0.02). A moderated mediation model with 5,000 bootstrap iterations shows that ecotourism awareness translates into advocacy through perceived environmental sustainability more strongly for men (indirect effect = .224) than for women (.080), with a significant index of moderated mediation (.144). Drawing on social role theory, the study argues that men convert cognitive and perceptual inputs into public expression more readily because agentic, status oriented behaviour aligns with masculine role expectations, while women with comparable awareness and perceptions channel engagement into private conduct rather than public recommendation. These findings run counter to the Western gender paradox literature, in which women are typically the more pro environmentally engaged group, and suggest that the direction of gender gaps in tourism advocacy depends on whether the behaviour measured is communicative or conductual. Implications for destination marketing, the use of advocacy as a proxy for environmental commitment, and the African ecotourism literature are discussed.