Not All Green Is Good: Segmenting Tourist Reactions to Destination CSR Signals

The growing significance of sustainability in coastal destinations prompts inquiries into how tourists interpret Destination Corporate Social Responsibility signals. This study examines how social responsibility initiatives in Salento (Italy) shape tourist satisfaction and post-visit behaviors. It integrates Signaling Theory with two psychological moderators: hedonic attitudes and utilitarian attitudes. The results of the study demonstrate that D-CSR signals have an impact on enhancing tourist satisfaction, which in turn positively influences intentions to revisit, word-of-mouth, and place attachment. However, the impact of sustainability signals is not uniform. Utilitarian attitudes have been shown to weaken the D-CSR–satisfaction relationship, leading to a phenomenon known as the red mood effect. The findings demonstrate that responses to sustainability signals are segmented. These responses depend on the coherence between individual values and the experiential nature of the visit.