ICPT.HUST 2023 - 18

Research purpose: This paper aims to explore the development of literature in people’s pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) and place attachment to a destination and propose a conceptual framework to examine how senses of belonging and ownership influence these behaviours.
Research motivation: Recent studies have highlighted the role of tourists and local resident in environmental preservation at tourist destinations. How they are willing to participate PEB in a place would be influenced by how they feel attached to it. PEB has been attracting a wide attention of researchers in tourism literature as one of the most effective drivers to significantly contribute to sustainable development of territories.
Research design, approach, and method:
The researcher explains the theoretical inter-relationships among the above-mentioned concepts by using the Place Attachment Theory and propose a conceptual framework which would contribute to advancing theories and investigate the gaps of knowledge in literature.
Main findings: A conceptual framework is proposed based on the review of previous studies and related theories. Sense of belonging and sense of ownership are key indicators to predict people’s PEB and their attachments to a place. Four hypotheses are proposed together with measuring scale development and model test adopting from previous studies.
Practical/managerial implications:From a theoretical perspective, the conceptual framework would help to attain more understanding to the body of knowledge by exploring the tourists’ and local resident’s behaviour and experience at tourist destinations and their role in adoption for sustainability.
Keywords: Place attachment, pro-environmental behaviour, sustainable tourism development, sense of belonging, sense of ownership.
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