Study On The Influence Of Tourists’ Engagement With Nature On Their Pro-Environmental Behavior Intention From The Perspective Of Embodied Experience

The exploration of the influencing factors and formation mechanisms of proenvironmental behavior has been a hot research topic in the field of tourism in recent years.Pro-environmental behavior is pro-social behavior made by individuals that is beneficial to the environment,and pro-environmental behavior in all fields has its significance,and understanding and guiding tourists’ pro-environmental behavior in the tourism field is especially important for the sustainable development of scenic spots.However,there are relatively few studies from the perspective of tourist subjects and there are problems in practice.At present,the regulation of tourists’ pro-environmental behavior in natural scenic areas often uses mandatory norms and punitive constraints,etc.,which,on the contrary,may cause tourists’ resentment.This paper integrates the theory of planned behavior and embodied theory from the perspective of tourists’ subjects,introduces engagement with nature and connectedness to nature,constructs a model of integration of tourists’ "rational cognition" and "embodied emotion" for pro-environmental behavior,and conducts an empirical study.The empirical study investigates the combined effects of the two approaches on tourists’ intention to engage in pro-environmental behaviors,and reveals their mechanisms and boundary conditions.Since the drivers and results of proenvironmental behavior are different depending on the cost and degree of initiative,this study classifies pro-environmental behavior into compliant pro-environmental behavior and pro-active pro-environmental behavior,and uses the degree of initiative of tourists to produce pro-environmental behavior as the main criterion for differentiation.In this study,valid research data were collected from 416 visitors in the back mountain of Qingcheng,and the data were analyzed using Smart PLS3.0 and SPSS26.0 software.The research results show that there are two influence paths,rational and emotional,on the pro-environmental behavior of tourists in natural scenic areas,and both paths have different effects on compliance-based pro-environmental behavior and active proenvironmental behavior.On the one hand,only subjective norms had significant positive effects on both types of pro-environmental behavioral intentions,and behavioral attitudes and perceived behavioral control had significant positive effects only on compliance-based pro-environmental behavioral intentions and proactive proenvironmental behavioral intentions,respectively;on the other hand,engagement with nature based on the five senses evoked connectedness to nature,which partially mediated and fully mediated the effects in engagement with nature and proactive and compliance-based pro-environmental behavioral intentions.The results of the study provide a new explanatory perspective for individual pro-environmental behavior and practical insights for effectively predicting and guiding tourists’ pro-environmental behavior in natural scenic areas: in addition to continuing to strengthen people’s social norms and environmental competence in the social context,the scenic area side needs to create opportunities and conditions for tourists to deeply immerse nature and experience nature,create a sense of atmosphere,enhance tourists’ perception of engagement with nature,in order to strengthen visitors’ connectedness to nature and stimulate their willingness to engage in pro-environmental behavior.