Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Tourism Management Perspectives
Volume
42
Publisher
Elsevier
School
School of Business and Law
RAS ID
44343
Funders
Strategic Research Grant administered by School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University
Abstract
Pro-environmental behaviors play a key role in the management and sustainability of parks and protected areas. An understanding of the antecedents of visitors' pro-environmental behaviors is vitally important in advancing knowledge, encouraging sustainability, and bettering management practice. This study developed and tested a behavioral model which integrated personal norms and social norms as normative influences, with connectedness to nature as a personality trait, as antecedents of pro-environmental behaviors. Data were collected through a visitor survey across three protected areas in Western Australia and analyzed via structural equation modelling. Results indicated that personal norms and connectedness to nature had a positive effect on pro-environmental behaviors, whereas social norms did not. The results highlight to protected area managers the need to consider moral obligations and personal identification with nature to foster on-site pro-environmental behaviors and encourage a positive spill-over effect off-site.
DOI
10.1016/j.tmp.2022.100966
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
This is an Authors Accepted Manuscript version of an article published by Elsevier, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2022.100966
Pearce, J., Huang, S. S., Dowling, R. K., & Smith, A. J. (2022). Effects of social and personal norms, and connectedness to nature, on pro-environmental behavior: A study of Western Australian protected area visitors. Tourism Management Perspectives, 42, article 100966. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2022.100966