Influence of Environmental Knowledge on Affect, Nature Affiliation and Pro-Environmental Behaviors among Tourists

Abstract

Jeju Island is a popular destination in South Korea that is dependent on nature-based tourism. The annual increase in the influx of visitors has created major environmental impacts due to overuse and commercial expansion. With projected growth in arrivals and the development of tourism infrastructure, the island will experience perpetual challenges for sustainable management of natural resources. However, the role of visitors will be central via a commitment to practice pro-environmental behaviors to protect the island from further degradation. This study was grounded in the cognition-affection-attitude-behavior model to examine the predictive validity of tourists’ environmental knowledge, environmental affect, and nature affiliation on pro-environmental behavior. The data comprised responses from 304 domestic visitors who had visited Jeju Island. The empirical findings indicate that environmental affect was significantly impacted by two dimensions of environmental knowledge (i.e., subjective and objective). Additionally, nature affiliation was positively impacted by environmental affect, while pro-environmental behavior was significantly influenced by both environmental affect and nature affiliation. Overall, these findings provide theoretical and practical implications for sustainable tourism at a nature-based destination. The findings can be utilized for implementation of intervention programs and visitor management at Jeju Island.

The perceived value and profile of protected areas visitors: A case study of the Guayas province, Ecuador

“…The rapid growth of the tourism industry in the world has given rise to new tourism trends with segments of markets rising from the new needs of demand (Aliman et al, 2014), motivated, among other factors, by the globalization of markets and increasingly informed consumers with a high sense of the environmental problems in the world which makes them more demanding when making decision on their trips (Echtner & Ritchie, 2003;Sheham et al, 2016). These factors lead to growing competitiveness among countries, regions, cities and destinations that are forced to design and implement appropriate strategies to estab-lish a differentiation with their competitors and position themselves in their target markets, which allows them to attract new customers as well as maintain existing ones (Min-Seong et al, 2018;Sheham et al, 2016). According to Rodríguez (2012), it is the tourists who must perceive this competitive differentiation of the destination since from their perceptions they acquire a travel behavior.…”

Cultural and Natural Resources in Tourism Island: Bibliometric Mapping

“…The most cited authors were: Folke (37 co-citations), Roberts (31), Hall (28), Buckley (27) and Hawking (25). At this point, it is necessary to mention that 70% (19) of the authors are not represented within the database under review. Their presence within the scientific mapping is due to conceptual contributions in relation to sustainable development, ecotourism and sustainable tourism.…”

“…The subjects analysed include geographical perspectives [98][99][100], resource management [101,102], tourism perceptions [103,104] and tourist impacts [105][106][107]. The following green cluster consists of 6 authors: Butler (24), Ramkissoon (19), Sharpley (17), Cohen (16), Lee (16) and Orams (15) and issues related to tourist area management processes are addressed [108][109][110][111][112][113].…”

“…Finally, cluster 5, which is red, concentrates on 7 researchers: Wall (24), Butler, R. C. (19), Bramwell (17), Becken (15), Buckley (15), Newsome (15), and Weaver (15). These authors address governance and new tourism trends [114][115][116][117].…”

Building pro-environmental behavior among school community of Adiwiyata green school

“…The eighth, all the involved parties are to actively contribute to the commemoration of environmental day, earth day, water day, and so forth manifesting the sense of pro-environmental behaviour. Kim and Kim (2018) stated that the affiliation gives significant influence toward pro-environmental behaviour. This effort must be supported by the both government and non-governmental organization (Nor et al, 2010).…”