Involvement, Place attachment and Tourists’ Environmentally Responsible Behaviour in Meizhou city, China

Abstract

University students are an important tourism market group. This study takes
Meizhou city (a famous Hakka cultural tourism city in China) as an example to
explore the influencing factors of university tourists' environmentally responsible
behavior (TERB). This study investigated 300 university students and analyzed
the data by partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM). The
results showed that involvement positively affected place attachment (place
dependenceand place identity) and TERB. Among place dependence and place
identity, only place identity positively affects TERB. In terms of mediating
relationship, place identity plays a significant mediating role between
involvement and TERB. The survey results suggest that the managers of
Meizhou tourist attractions should pay more attention to the needs of college
students and design participation projects that meet the needs of college students
and have strong experience, so as to raise their awareness of place attachment
and environmentally responsible behaviour in Meizhou. Secondly, Meizhou
tourism managers should actively establish the image of tourism destination and
build a good relationship between people and land. Finally, Meizhou
administrative departments, tourism related departments and managers of
tourist attractions should grasp the specific reasonsfor tourists' environmentally
responsible behaviour and formulate targeted and effective tourist
environmental protection policies and systems, so as to promotethe sustainable
development of destinations.