Modelling the influence of environmental attitudes on the preferences for activities: A SEM approach

Abstract

The association between environmental attitudes and participation in outdoor recreation activities has been recognized by previous research. However, literature about the effect of environmental attitudes on preference for activities is limited. The current study examines the domestic visitors of Portuguese protected areas (PPA) to investigate the inffuence of environmental attitudes on the preference for activities carried out in PPA, namely nature-based sports, environmental interpretation and recreation. Structural Equation Modelling is used to test the proposed model, based on a sample of 401 visitors. Results show that ecocentric attitudes only inffuence the preference for environmental interpretation activities; however, the estimated relationship is very weak. Nature-based sports and recreation activities suffer no inffuence or very little inffuence from either ecocentric or anthropocentric attitudes. Results also suggest the need to introduce other variables in the model.