As one of the biggest service-oriented industries worldwide, the hotel industry significantly contributes to environmental degradation in several ways. Service marketers, consumers, and policy makers are increasingly aware of the damage that excessive natural resources depletion in the guise of water and energy consumption and CO2 emissions by hotels might bring about to the planet. As a result of the growing global concern about climate change, there has been an increase in consumer demand for environmentally-responsible hospitality options. One such option is green hotels, which are environmentally-conscious hospitality properties that are gaining popularity worldwide at a rapid pace. Consumers who prioritize eco-friendliness are willing to pay a premium for green hotels. However, unlike tangible products, services such as hotel experiences are subjective, emotional, and therefore, difficult to evaluate before actual usage. One of the prominent ways in which consumers assess green hotels’ credibility is through user generated content in the form of reviews.

The purpose of this study was to examine what motivated consumers to purchase the products that they viewed from User Generated Content (UGC) on YouTube. The current research collected 198 YouTube users online survey on their attitude toward UGC, their perceived credibility of UGC, their user activity, parasocial interaction and their purchase intention of the products being reviewed. The results showed these examined variables were positive correlated. Additionally, active users and passive users not only held different attitudes toward UGC and different purchase intentions for the products being reviewed, but also the predictive power was varied.