Impact of Situational Environmental Education on Tourist Behavior—A Case Study of Water Culture Ecological Park in China

Jinming Wang (), Jialu Dai, Bart Julien Dewancker, Weijun Gao, Zaiqiang Liu and Yue Zhou
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Jinming Wang: Faculty of Environmental Engineering, The University of Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu 808-0135, Japan
Jialu Dai: Faculty of Environmental Engineering, The University of Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu 808-0135, Japan
Bart Julien Dewancker: Faculty of Environmental Engineering, The University of Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu 808-0135, Japan
Weijun Gao: Faculty of Environmental Engineering, The University of Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu 808-0135, Japan
Zaiqiang Liu: Faculty of Environmental Systems, The University of Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu 808-0135, Japan
Yue Zhou: Faculty of Environmental Systems, The University of Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu 808-0135, Japan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-23

Abstract: With the increasing number of travelling people, the behavior of tourists is having an increasing impact on the environment. Situational environmental education will influence the tourists’ responsible environmental behavior, which positively or negatively affects the environment. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of situational environmental education on tourists’ responsible environmental behavior through a field study of Changchun Water Culture Ecological Park, combined with a survey and Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET) interview method. There are 527 questionnaires, 89 pre-questionnaires, and 15 interview records collected. The results showed that: (1) All interviewees were impressed with the situational environmental education in the park. It can be concluded that the situational environmental education is easily accepted. The reason may be that, among the theme park users, 42.69% were aged 21–30 year’s old, and 62.8% of the population have a college degree or above. (2) The standardized path coefficient of situational environmental education in tourist destinations for tourists’ behavioral intention is 0.74, and the standardized path coefficient for responsible environmental behavior is 0.78, which is much higher than the standard value of 0.4. Therefore, situational environmental education has positive influences on the tourists’ behavioral intention and responsible environmental behavior. (3) The sensitive analysis the tourists’ behavioral intention has a positive relationship with attitudes toward environmental behaviors (0.66), subjective norm (0.53), and perceptual behavior control (0.52). The results of this study can provide a scientific basis for the planning and design of urban parks.

Keywords: situational environmental education; tourists’ responsible environmental behavior; planned behavior model; mental models (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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