Rural tourism destinations are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, yet limited empirical research explains how community-level climate awareness translates into sustainable tourism development outcomes. Drawing on Sustainable Development Theory, Stakeholder Theory, Community-Based Tourism Theory, and the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study develops and tests a moderated mediation model linking climate change awareness to sustainable tourism development through environmental attitudes, with government support as a moderator. Using survey data from 368 rural tourism stakeholders in Nigeria and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), results indicate that climate change awareness significantly predicts sustainable tourism development. Environmental attitude partially mediates this relationship, while government support strengthens the awareness–sustainability link. The model explains 46% of the variance in sustainable tourism development. The study advances climate-resilient tourism theory by integrating cognitive, psychological, and institutional dimensions and offers actionable policy implications for rural destinations in emerging economies.
Keywords: Climate change awareness, Nigeria, PLS-SEM, Rural tourism, environmental attitude, government support, sustainable tourism development
