The relationship between outdoor sport participants’ place attachment and pro-environment behaviour in natural areas of Japan for developing sustainable outdoor sport tourism

Abstract

Developing natural areas that are utilised for outdoor sports is undertaken to disperse high concentrations of tourists from the city out into rural areas to revitalise regional communities. To promote outdoor sports tourism with an emphasis on economic and environmental impacts, increasing environment awareness among marketers, tourists and local residents is critical. The purpose of this study was to clarify the influence of attachment to natural areas thorough outdoor leisure activities on pro-environment behaviour. The study sample (n = 146) consisted of Japanese visitors to an outdoor leisure facility located in Ikeda, Fukui Prefecture in Japan. Following previous research, we employed a place attachment scale that was designed to measure two concepts, including place dependence (i.e. functional attachment) and place identity (i.e. emotional attachment). Structural equation modelling confirmed the strength of place dependence’s ability to predict place-related pro-environment behavioural intentions. However, place identity was not a significant predictor of pro-environment behaviour. Programme development that takes into consideration how place dependence leads to place identity and how place identity affects pro-environment behavioural intentions may be needed to execute sustainable natural environment development thorough outdoor sports.