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.

Highlights

  • Nature-based destinations face challenges to sustain the ecological resources due to their popularity and high demand among visitors [1]

  • The results showed that environmental affect was significantly influenced by subjective environmental knowledge (β = 0.786, t-value = 12.278) and objective environmental knowledge

  • The results revealed a positive significant relationship in which higher levels of subjective and objective environmental knowledge resulted in increased environmental affect

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Summary

Introduction

Nature-based destinations face challenges to sustain the ecological resources due to their popularity and high demand among visitors [1]. Cheng and Wu [8] adopted the cognition-affection-attitude-behavior model [11] and suggested that tourists’ environmental knowledge can lead to concern and respect for the environment at a destination. This could arouse tourists’ functional and affective attachment to the place visited, which in turn, might influence the exhibition of pro-environmental behaviors [12]. The mediated roles of environmental affect and nature affiliation between the two types of environmental knowledge and pro-environmental behavior (i.e., expand the cognition-affection-attitude-behavior model for nature-based destination) were tested.

Environmental Knowledge
Environmental Affect
Nature Affiliation and Pro-Environmental Behavior
Research Hypothesis Development
Research Site
Sample Characteristics
Two-Step Analyses
Pro-environmental behavior
Structural Equation Modelling and Hypothesis Testing
Discussion and Implications
Conclusions
Full Text
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