Committed to conservation: Tourism in developed and developing contexts

Abstract

This study investigates differences in tourists' conservation commitment at developed and developing heritage sites. It examines relationships between conservation commitment and related concepts: cultural motivation, place attachment, and participation. Data was collected from two troglodyte heritage sites: Kandovan, Iran (developing) and Cappadocia, Turkey (developed). Five hundred eighteen survey responses were collected at Kandovan and 627 at Cappadocia. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to perform analysis. Multigroup analysis findings indicate that direct relationships among conservation commitment, cultural motivation, place attachment, and participation were significantly higher in the developing context; encouraging industry managers to use participative feedback to stimulate conservation commitment.