The Effect of Tourism Quality Perception on the Sport Tourists’ Environmentally Responsible Behavior with the Mediating Role of Attachment to Place

Drawn public attention to the negative impacts on environmentally sensitive areas. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the quality of tourism perception on the environmentally responsible behavior of sports tourists with the mediating role of attachment to the place.

This research is descriptive and correlational. The statistical population consisted of all sports tourists in the Alangdareh Forest Park of Gorgan in 2021. The data collection tools were the standard questionnaires of understanding the quality of tourism by Yin et al. (2021), environmentally responsible behavior by Yin et al. (2021) and place attachment by Ramkissoon et al. (2013). The validity and reliability of the questionnaires were confirmed. Structural equation modeling including confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis were used to analyze the data. The software used for data analysis were AMOS23 and SPSS23.

The results showed that the quality of tourism perception has a significant effect on the environmentally responsible behavior of sports tourists; the quality of tourism perception has a significant effect on attachment to the place of sports tourists; Attachment to the place has a significant effect on the environmentally responsible behavior of sports tourists and attachment to the place mediates the effect of understanding the quality of tourism on the environmentally responsible behavior of sports tourists.

One of the important messages of the current research is that attachment to a place is a significant mediator between understanding the quality of tourism and responsible environmental behavior. The results of the current research emphasize active interaction with sports tourists, good management, supporting biodiversity and encouraging responsible and sustainable consumption in order to strengthen tourists' attachment to the place and environmentally responsible behaviors.