Health, Wellness and Tourism: healthy tourists, healthy business ...

According to Ajzen, “persuasive communication can produce a profound and lasting change, a goal
not easily attained by other means” (Ajzen, 1992: 6). Some years prior to that statement, Ajzen
(1988) argued that behaviour is a function of behavioural beliefs that influence a person’s attitudes
towards the behaviour, normative beliefs that determine the subjective norms (perceived social
pressures), and control beliefs that underpin perceptions of behavioural control, advancing
advanced the Theory of Planned Behaviour, outlined in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour
Source: Ajzen (1988: 133)
According to the theory, the intention to act precedes the actual behaviour, with intentions based on
three elements, or salient beliefs: personal attitudes towards the behaviour, one’s perception of
social pressures to undertake the behaviour (or subjective norm), and the perception of how much
personal control one has over that action (perceived behavioural control). In relation to visitor
behaviour, Fishbein and Manfredo (1992) present some strong cases supporting the role of
persuasive communication theory in affecting national park visitor beliefs, attitudes and intentions
and,, ultimately their behaviour.
The perceived control one has over one’s behaviour is significnat as it relates to a sense of personal
choice and the power to do so. This is similar to locus of control theory, which consists of two loci,
namely internal and external (McCool and Braithwaite, 1992) - where a person believes that their
future is controlled by others, they reflect a belief in an external locus of control, which is similar to
a low level of perceived behavioural control in Ajzen’s model.
While the model has three areas of salient beliefs, they are not necessarily evenly weighted, with
some being so weak at times that they are over-ridden by the most dominant belief. For example,
there are times when there may be little or no influence from attitudes and subjective norms, so
consequently a person my move directly from ‘perceived behavioural control’ to an intention to act
(Ajzen, 1988). Such differences are also reflected in the model, presenting a flexible and effective
model that has been applied many times in relation to persuading others (for some tourism and
recreation examples, see Lackey et. al., 2002, Beeton et; al., 2005).
The Case of No Leave, No Life
As noted earlier, the Australian No Leave, No Life campaign commenced in 2009, with the longterm
aim to reduce the amount of accrued recreation leave by Australians and to increase domestic