Mindfulness promotes sustainable tourism: the case of Uluru

Mindfulness refers to the state of being aware, taking note of what is going on within oneself, without any judgment. Mindfulness has been shown to affect decision-making, empathy, and sustainability in non-tourism contexts. We conducted an experiment to see if mindfulness can promote sustainable behaviours in a tourism context. After listening to a mindfulness-inducing audio track, participants expressed a lower preference for a group tour to Uluru, NT, Australia, that prominently featured climbing the sandstone formation as part of the package. Process data suggested that being mindful made participants more aware of the environmental and cultural consequences of their decisions. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on the many positive impacts of mindfulness on individual and social well-being – this time within a tourism context in which both mindfulness and sustainability are showing important applications as well as consequences.