Residents’ Environmental Conservation Behaviors at Tourist Sites: Broadening the Norm Activation Framework by Adopting Environment Attachment

Abstract

Understanding the factors that affect residents' environmental conservation behaviors help in managing the environment of tourist sites. This research provides an integrative understanding of how residents near tourist sites form their environmental conservation behaviors by merging the norm-activation model and cognitive-affective model into one theoretical framework. Results of the structural analysis from a sample of 642 residents showed that this study's proposed composite model includes a satisfactory level of predictive power for environmental conservation behaviors. The findings identify the following two dimensions of awareness of environmental consequences as having a key role in predicting environmental conservation behaviors: (1) awareness of positive consequences of environmental protection; and (2) awareness of disaster consequences. Results also show that environment attachment and personal norms about environmentalism played a mediating role between awareness of environmental consequences and environmental conservation behaviors, and that personal norms about environmentalism were the most powerful factor in predicting behaviors. Several practical implications were derived from the research findings that can contribute to environment management policy both within and outside the field of tourism, mostly notably: (1) how the effective promotion of these factors can encourage environmental conservation behaviors for residents; and (2) how governments can develop and implement environmental management measures to improve locals' awareness of positive consequences of environmental protection.

Fostering Resident Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Roles of Destination Image and Confucian Culture

“…In this research, PEB refers to the actions taken by individuals or groups that promote or result in the sustainable development of natural resources [42]. Residents can be strategic participants in the construction of a destination's ecological image, and their PEB may strongly bond with sustainable destination development [5].…”

“…Residents are important stakeholders in tourism development and have the strongest bonds with destinations because their livelihoods and well-being are closely linked to the quality of the environment. Moreover, residents' behaviors and activities have a direct, comprehensive, and deep impact on the quality of the destination environment [5]. Therefore, fostering residents' pro-environmental behavior (hereinafter named as PEB) can be one of the foundations for sustainable destination development.…”

“…Prior studies have indicated that PEB is a significant issue in environmental research. Key theories such as the theory of planned behavior [6][7][8][9]; norm-activation model [5,6]; value-belief-norm theory [7]; and place attachment [10] have been employed to predict environmental behavior. Environmental attitudes, individual beliefs, emotions, intentions, and behaviors related to the environment [11,12] are recognized as key factors in the prediction of environmental behavior.…”

Will the Future Be Greener? The Environmental Behavioral Intentions of University Tourism Students

“…Previous studies have mostly focused on exploring tourists' environmental behaviors [12,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Some research has explored residents' environmental behaviors [23,24]. However, investigations to determine the environmental behaviors of tourism employees are scarce.…”

How to Promote Sustainable Relationships between Heritage Conservation and Community, Based on a Survey

“…Some previous related studies have focused on community involvement and relationships between a protected area and the community, and it has been concluded that participatory approaches and collaboration can promote positive relationships between management agencies and local people, thereby supporting protection of the reserve [9][10][11]. Moreover, several studies have shown that local attitudes are a key factor that influences relationships between communities and protected areas [12][13][14][15][16][17]. From a review of 105 published documents focusing on wildlife conservation, community involvement and protected area-community relationships, it emerged that relationships are mostly influenced by attitudes [18].…”