Does Environmental Interpretation Impact Public Ecological Flow Experience and Responsible Behavior? A Case Study of Potatso National Park, China

Tiantian Tang, Minyan Zhao (), Dan Wang (), Xiangyu Chen, Wuqiang Chen, Chunwen Xie and Yan Ding
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Tiantian Tang: College of Biodiversity Conservation, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China
Minyan Zhao: Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Dan Wang: School of International Chinese Language Education, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
Xiangyu Chen: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Wuqiang Chen: School of Economics and Management, Yunnan Forestry Technological College, Kunming 650224, China
Chunwen Xie: School of Geography and Ecotourism, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China
Yan Ding: School of Geography and Ecotourism, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-17

Abstract: Being responsible for ensuring nature preservation, environmental interpretation raises people’s awareness of nature preservation as a form of public service, and enhance their environmentally responsible behavior. Based on the flow theory, this study proposes a conceptual model of environmental interpretation impacts on visit motivation, ecological experience, environmental attitudes, and environmental behaviors. Selecting the users (visitors) of environmental interpretation at Potatso National Park in Shangri-La, Yunnan Province, China, we obtained 568 valid questionnaires and used Amos software to analyze a structural equation model to verify the model. The results indicate that the environmental interpretation plays a significant role in enriching the public’s ecological experience, which is an intermediary variable in which visiting motivation influences environmental attitudes and guides environmentally responsible behavior. The research suggests that national parks should strengthen the environmental interpretation facilities experiential and available, and adjust the configuration of the existing interpretation media in the three-dimensional structure of theme, space, and time, considering the motivation of the public visits, enriching ecological experience, and inspiring service details.

Keywords: ecological flow experience; environmental interpretation; recreational preferences; recreational motivations; environmental education; environmentally responsible behavior; national park; Potatso (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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