The Effect of Nature-based Tourism, Destination Attachment and Property Ownership on Environmental-friendliness of Visitors: A Study in Thailand

Abstract

This study examines whether international visitors' pro-environment attitudes is enhanced by the experience of nature-based tourism, destination attachment and ownership of property at the destination. It also examines whether visitors are obstructed from exhibiting pro-environment attitudes and behaviors by situational barriers at the destination. A questionnaire survey was employed to test the hypotheses. The main sample of 300 respondents was collected in Thailand in two main tourism regions. Results from the survey indicate that destination attachment and nature-based tourism experience positively influence visitors' pro-environment attitudes, whereas ownership of property at the destination enhances their sense of attachment to the destination. "Vacation mindset" and different social norms have a negative impact on their pro-environment attitudes, while the lack of availability of "green" infrastructure, products and information negatively impact their attitudes as well as behaviors. Based on these findings, visitors' pro-environment attitudes may be enhanced by eliciting feelings of attachment to the destination and more frequent experience of nature-based tourism, while their pro-environment behaviors may be enhanced by greater provision of environmental friendly tourism products, infrastructure and information.

The Success Factors of Rural Community Based Tourism in Indonesia

“…The results are in line with the research put forward by researchers who discussed the importance of community participation in the development of CBT (Li & Hunter, 2015); (Stone, 2015); (Giampiccoli & Mtapuri, 2015); (Towner & Towner, 2016); (Park et al, 2017); (Kunjuraman & Hussin, 2017); (Mayaka et al, 2017). The survey results also support researchers who state that ownership is a determining factor for the successful management of CBT (Chubchuwong et al, 2015); (Hampton & Jeyacheya, 2015); (Jones, Diggle, & Thouless, 2015); (Dolezal & Burns, 2015). These three dimensions are perceived almost the same by all respondents, which is above 90%.…”

“…But ownership alone is not enough, transfer of ownership from an external actor to the community will only be successful if the community has the required management skills necessary to run the project as a commercial business (Rodrigues & Prideaux, 2017). Basically, ownership of the property at the destination enhances their sense of attachment to the destination (Chubchuwong, Beise-zee, & Speece, 2015).…”

Interactions and Relationships between Personal Factors in Pro-Environmental Golf Tourist Behaviour: A Gender Analysis

“…Research under the latter topic focuses on examining the environmentally-sustainable behaviour that tourists exhibit while travelling. Several models have been proposed to fulfil this goal [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

“…In this sense, the concepts of regional identity or place attachment can play an important role in environmental behaviour [14,15]. Tourists are different from normal local residents because of their temporary status as visitors to a destination [6]. Hence, Kollmuss and Agyeman [16] indicated that the relationship between environmental attitudes and environmentally-friendly behaviour is expected to be weaker when the cost of not acting pro-environmentally is relatively low.…”

“…They reported that a number of respondents feel that holidays are an exception that justifies different behaviours. As Chubchuwong, Beise-Zee and Speece [6] suggested, tourists are not in their usual environment, and they tend to feel unobligated to be responsible for the environmental impacts created during their short stays.…”