Visitors’ Experience, Place Attachment and Sustainable Behaviour at Cultural Heritage Sites: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Sustainable tourism research has attracted wide interest from scholars and practitioners. While several heritage sites are mandated to provide optimum visitor satisfaction with increasing competition in the market, managers of heritage sites face growing challenges in striking a balance between consumption and conservation. This calls for promoting more sustainable behaviours among consumers of heritage. This study proposes a conceptualization of sustainable behaviour for heritage consumers. Using the attitude-behaviour relationship underpinned by the Theory of Reasoned Action, it develops and proposes a conceptual framework that integrates visitors' heritage experiences, their attachment to heritage sites, and their general and site-specific sustainable heritage behaviour and presents their interrelationships as proposed hypotheses. Theoretical contributions and practical implications for heritage site managers are discussed.

The Role of Sustainable Events in the Management of Historic Buildings

“…Many historic buildings are also within wider cultural heritage sites, and world heritage sites (WHS) and therefore are significant tourism destinations. Tourism can play a significant role in their funding and maintenance [16]. Tourism within historic buildings can be difficult to manage, however, it is often necessary and justifies the existence of WHS to some extent [16,17].…”

The Effect of Regulatory Focus on Individuals’ Donation Behavior

“…Our findings provide several useful suggestions to nonprofit organizations that are largely funded by individuals' contributions or firms that consider cause-related marketing, in achieving the causes that they aim to support; helping people in need, conserving wildlife and nature, preserving cultural heritage, or coping with climate change [1][2][3]13,36]. First, marketing messages soliciting donations tend to focus on describing the recipients or social causes.…”

“…. (seldom [1]-often [7]); Cronbach's α = 0.87. They also indicated whether they currently donate on a regular basis.…”

“…6. Income (~2000, 2000-4000, 4000-6000, 6000-8000, 8000~) 3 1 The extreme anchors on the response scale were not at all (1) and a lot (7); 2 Notes: (R) = reverse scored; 3 unit: 1000 KRW (about 0.93 USD). …”

“…It is imperative that every constituent of a society works together for its sustainability, whether to conserve wildlife and nature, to preserve cultural heritage, or to cope with climate change [1,2]. Individuals buy green products and adhere to the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) in their everyday lives [3].…”