Making sense of sustainability abroad: How international tourists interpret and practice sustainable behaviors in Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

International tourists often struggle to maintain sustainable behaviors when traveling abroad, yet little is known about how they interpret and adapt sustainability in unfamiliar environments. This qualitative study investigates how visitors to Ho Chi Minh City make sense of sustainability through an interpretive process shaped by contextual cues and practical constraints. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 20 international tourists recruited through purposive and snowball sampling, the findings reveal that sustainability abroad is actively reconstructed rather than transferred intact from home-country norms. Tourists interpret a variety of environmental, infrastructural, business, and social cues, which guide the recalibration of their sustainability standards. In turn, they enact small-scale micro-practices such as limiting amenities, reusing bags or bottles, or supporting local vendors that align with both moral identity and situational feasibility. The study proposes an empirically grounded process model that refines the cue–interpretation–action logic of sensemaking by specifying how contextual cues lead to recalibrated sustainability standards and subsequent micro-practices. Managerial implications highlight the need for consistent sustainability messaging, green-by-default infrastructure, and the reduction of conflicting cues that hinder tourists’ interpretive clarity.