Objectives With the rapid development of the tourism industry, the prevalence of environmental pollution degradation and ecological impairment in tourist locales is becoming increasingly evident. The study of the impact of tourists’ "goodwill" and "inappropriate" environmental behaviors on the environment and ecology of tourist destinations is receiving increasing attention and has become a prominent topic in the fields of human geography and environmental sociology research. This article aimed to provide a comprehensive review of the existing research on tourists’ environmental behavior, identify the limitations of current research, and suggest future avenues for investigation.

Methods This article employed a systematic literature review methodology to examine the definition, classification, research approach, and external contextual influencing factors of tourist environmental behavior.

Results It was found that there was no unified standard for the classification of environmental behavior by previous researchers, and there was a lack of rigorous logic. Additionally, there was a lack of clarity regarding the theoretical underpinnings of the selected research models. External situational factors have emerged as a prominent area of interest in recent years. In the future, research on tourists’ environmental behavior under the influence of situational factors in tourist destinations should be strengthened, and the classification of tourists’ environmental behavior should be studied. The comprehensive application of various methods in the study of tourist environmental behavior should be strengthened, and comparative studies should be conducted on multiple case studies.

Conclusions This article aims to gain a deeper understanding and analysis of the impact mechanism of tourists’ environmental behavior, provide scientific guidance for researchers related to tourists’ environmental behavior, and promote the high-quality development of the tourism industry and the construction of ecological civilization.