Relationship between Knowledge and Tourists’ Environmental Behaviors Considering the Intermediate Variable of Environmental Attitudes (Case Study: Darabad, Darakeh, Ahar Fasham, Vardij, and Bam-e Tehran)

The most important aspect of nature-oriented tourists’ behaviors is paying attention to environmental sustainability. Much environmental research in the field of tourism has focused on the roles of values, attitudes, beliefs, and norms in shaping environmental behavior. In this study, according to the theory adopted by the majority of psychologists concerning the effect of attitude on behavior, it was used as an intermediate variable for explaining the relationship between knowledge and tourists’ environmental behaviors in the tourist areas of Tehran. This research was applied in terms of purpose and a descriptive survey in terms of data collection method. To conduct it, a researcher-made questionnaire with 75 variables was prepared and adjusted. Its reliability was confirmed by a Cronbach's alpha of 0.939 and its validity was formally confirmed. The statistical population included the tourists referring to 5 mountain tourism areas of Tehran. To estimate the sample size of 302 people from an unknown community, Cochran's formula was used. The study area included 5 mountain tourism areas of Tehran. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. The analytical results of the behavioral models of the nature-oriented tourists showed a positive and significant relationship between attitude and environmental behavior and also between attitude and environmental knowledge with the factor loads of 0.68 and 0.82 at the significant level of less than 0.05, respectively. Also, the tourists’ environmental behaviors were studied based on their educational levels. According to the results, the tourists’ environmental behaviors depended on their levels of education. Thus, it could be stated that the existence of a cognitive analysis system called “tourist environmental knowledge” in combination with an emotional system would lead to the formation of their environmental attitudes, which could act as a basis for improving and optimizing their behaviors in the tourism destinations.