Relationship Between Specific Attributes Of Place,Tourists' Place Attachment And Pro-environment Behavioral Intentions In Jiuzhaigou

Theory of place is a significant component of modern human geography.Specific attributes of place are defined in this article as the specific advantages and unique characteristics of place compared to the others.Specific attributes of place plays a great role in the human activities in the place,and at the same time it also inevitably affects the value connotation of place.The conceptual framework of Person-Progress-Place(3P)constructed by Scannell and Gillord puts special emphasis on the meaning of place in the place attachment and characteristics of place in the attachment.Attributes and characteristics of place not only have an influence on the individual place attachment to a specific place,but also play an important role in individual behaviors in the place.However the importance of the specific attributes of place has been realized by researchers,this concept has not been put forward explicitly and its dimensions have not been clarified.This article constructs the measuring indices of the dimensions of specific attributes of place from the perspective of man-land relationship which is taken as the base of the further research on the relationship between specific attributes of place,place attachment and pro-environmental behavior.Based on geography perspective,the article extracts the dimension of specific attributes of place from the place attachment research framework of Person-Place-Process(3P)and construct the corresponding measurement model.The specific attributes of a place,referring to the comparative strength or uniqueness of the place,have been hardly considered in the research framework of pro-environmental behaviors and intentions although it is the fundamental and indispensable element of the human-environment interactions,especially in a distinctive and impressive destination such as Jiuzhaigou.Jiuzhaigou is a natural World Heritage site in China,famous for its splendid natural scenery and the Tibetan customs and traditions.Using Jiuzhaigou as the study case,this article takes the specific attributes of the place(containing natural environment and social environment of Jiuzhaigou perceived by tourists)as the antecedents,place attachment(containing place dependence and place identity)as the intermediaries,and pro-environmental behavioral intentions(containing low effort pro-environmental behavioral intentions and high effort pro-environmental behavioral intentions)as consequences to establish a structural model for further exploration of the relationship between tourists' place attachment and their pro-environment behavioral intention,and for an experimental examination of the role of specific attributes of a place in that relationship.Data were collected by structured questionnaire survey carefully designed and amended.One variable was removed after the initial reliability and validity analysis.After confirmatory factor analysis,the model was tested.The overall fit of the measurement model suggested a reasonable model fit to the data given the sample size and number of indicators.Finally two of eight hypotheses were rejected and all of the rest were accepted.Four main conclusions have been obtained by this research:(1)"specific attributes of Jiuzhaigou" has a significant positive impact on tourists' place attachment,indicating its importance in the development of tourists' place attachment;and"specific attributes of Jiuzhaigou" also has a significant positive impact on tourists'pro-environment behavioral intentions by mediating tourists' place attachment,performing as an effective predictor for tourists' pro-environment behavioral intentions and an indispensable factor in research related to tourists' place attachment and pro-environment behavioral intentions and their relationship;In the study of relationship of tourists' place attachment and pro-environment behavioral intentions,specific attributes of place should not simply be seen as an environmental background,but a priori important factors.(2)From geography perspective,specific attributes of place can be divided into natural environment of place and cultural environment of place,which can be used to explain the meaning and role of specific attributes of place,that different dimensions of specific attributes of Jiuzhaigou have varied effects,namely,more obvious attributes of a specific place(natural environmental attributes of Jiuzhaigou)have more significant effects.(3)Significant discrepancy exists between two dimensions of place attachment for their influences on pro-environment behavioral intentions of different types,and low effort pro-environmental behavioral intentions tend to be significantly affected by place identity and high effort pro-environmental behavioral intentions tend to be significantly affected by place dependence.(4)Significant discrepancy exists in different characteristics of tourists'perception of specific attributes of place,place attachment and pro-environmental behavioral intentions.There are significant differences between male and female perception of cultural environment of Jiuzhaigou;there are significant differences between tourists of different age,education level and income in the perception of natural environment of Jiuzhaigou;there are significant differences between tourists of different occupation and times of visit in the place identity of place attachment;there are significant differences between tourists of different education level in the low effort pro-environmental behavioral intentions.