Objectives National parks are important places for eco-tourism. How to balance the relationship between national park carbon offsetting and tourism economic development to promote the realization of the dual carbon goal has become an important issue facing the construction of national parks. Tourism operators are important participants in national park tourism activities. Understanding the influencing factors of national park tourism operators' carbon offsetting behavior and effectively guiding them and or reducing carbon dioxide emissions can be of great practical significance for promoting the high-quality development of national parks and the construction of ecological civilization in China.

Methods This article introduced the theory of planned behavior and the theory of normative activation, applied the structural equation model method with SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0 as software tools to conduct an empirical analysis of the influencing factors of the carbon offsetting behavior of Giant Panda National Park tour operators.

Results The research showed that: (1) The carbon offsetting behavior of Giant Panda National Park tour operators were driven by rational and moral factors, which were subjective norms, responsibility attribution, and perceptual behavior control positively affecting their carbon offsetting behavior. Among them, subjective norms showed the greatest impact on carbon offsetting behavior, and responsibility attribution and perceptual behavior control were the second. (2) Attitude, personal norms, and result consciousness negatively affected the carbon offsetting behavior of tour operators. (3) Attitude played an intermediary role in the impact of subjective norms on the carbon offsetting behavior of giant panda national park tour operators; individual norms played an intermediary role in the impact of responsibility, result consciousness, and subjective norms on the carbon offsetting behavior of tour operators.

Conclusions From the perspective of the relationship influencing the carbon offsetting behaviors of tour operators in Giant Panda National Park, the article proposes corresponding management policies from four aspects: concept cultivation, social norms, internalization of behaviors, and incentives for results, to promote the sustainable development of ecotourism in China’s national parks and to achieve regional carbon neutrality.