Tourist disturbance intentions toward giant pandas in Wolong National Nature Reserve, China: An application of extended theory of planned behavior

Abstract

Giant panda tourism is famous for promoting tourists’ travel to giant panda nature reserves. Different viewpoints have always existed regarding giant panda tourism, and the negative impact on the behavior and habitat of giant pandas has also been the subject of many researchers. A theoretical framework was proposed based on Extended Theory of Planned Behavior. SEM was used to test the hypotheses by AMOS28.0. The respondents of the study are tourists who travelled to Wolong National Nature Reserve aiming to watching giant pandas spanning from August 2023 to October 2023. 302 valid questionnaires were collected by face-to-face survey using a simple random sampling. All hypotheses were supported by testing. Cognition negative affects attitude of tourist disturbance toward giant pandas. Attitude positively affects tourist disturbance intentions toward giant pandas. Subjective norm positively affects tourist disturbance intentions toward giant pandas. Perceived behavioral control positively affects tourist disturbance intentions toward giant pandas. There exists a sequential relationship among cognition, attitude, and intention. Attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control have a significant positive influence on tourist disturbance intentions directly. The results of this study can provide new directions to take new measures for tourism managers, producing a positive role in promoting the development of giant panda tourism.