Global Climate Change Perception Of Forest Traveler And Its Affect On Low-carbon Travel Decision Making

The Study explored the forest travelers’ perception of climate change，low carbontravel decision-making intention and low-carbon willingness to pay, analyzed themain influencing factors and the relationship between them. In this study, two typesof influencing factors that may affect the travel decision-making intention andlow-carbon willingness to pay are defined:（1）the basic variables, including the subjective norm, environmental sensitivityand environmental attitudes；（2）the strengthening variables, including the specificenvironmental knowledge, the consequences of consciousness, the PerceivedBehavioral Control and the Attitude. And, models of low-carbon traveldecision-making intention and low-carbon willingness to pay are advanced and testedand some hypothesis are put forward and examined based on a questionnaire surveyconducted in Haikou.Total451valid questionnaires are acquired. Correlation analysis, ANOVA andhierarchical regression statistical analysis are used in this study to test the hypothesis.The results showed that:(1)The forest travelers have a high-level of perceptionof climate change and specific environmental knowledge；Approximately half of thetravelers have the intention to travel more environmentally to reduce emission ofgreen-house gas. Most travelers are willing to pay to protect the environment.(2)Thetravel can be divided into two groups, that is, the near eco-centrists and the nearanthropocentrisms. There are more females then males is the near eco-centrists groupand their intention of low-carbon travel decision-making is higher.Near eco-centrists’awareness are higher than the near anthropocentrisms.And Compared to nearanthropocentrisms, near eco-centrists are more likely to choose low-carbon travelmode. The eco-centrists’ also more clear about travel industry is one of the mostimportant factor of causing climate change. The results suggest that better publicenvironmental education are required to help traveler to form pro-environmentalattitude and get more environmental knowledge about climate change,especially aboutthe relationship between climate change and travel industry, thereby lead them to choose a more environmental-friendly travel mode and mitigate climate change.(3)Consequences of consciousness are the most powerful predictor of travelers’ lowcarbon travel decision-making intention; Attitude have the most positively effect ontravelers’ willing to pay, the interaction effect of environmental and specificenvironmental knowledge with other factors also have a positively effect.Suggestions of pro-environmental education and environmental policies arepresented in the last section of the paper.