The Role of Emotion in Place Attachment

The role of place attachment in influencing tourists’ environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviour is supported by many. Tourists tend to express stronger emotional attachment towards natural environments; however, our understanding of the affective dimension of place attachment and its implications for tourism practices is limited. This paper investigates the role of emotion as a dimension of place attachment in influencing proenvironmental attitudes and specific tourism choices i.e. nature-based tourism (nBT). we provide empirical evidence using a structural modelling methodology to support the hypothesis that environmental attitudes are positively related to nature-based tourism motivations, and nBT motivations are positively related to place attachment with respect to a tourism destination. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.