Enhancing Pro Environmental Behavior at Heritage Sites: The Effect of Place Attachment

Abstract

With growing insight into sustainability issue, the tourists' pro-environmental behavior in cultural heritage sites became a vital topic to discuss. Until now, visitors’ environmental behavior at heritage sites has not been sufficiently examined. It has been assumed that individuals with higher levels of attachment to a particular place were more likely to protect this place. Therefore, the current research aims at examining the influence of place attachment on pro-environmental behavior of tourists at the district of Old Cairo. This study considered place attachment as a multidimensional construct including place dependence, place identity, place affect and place social bonding. A structured questionnaire has been used to collect the primary data from a sample of 400 local and foreign visitors at Old Cairo. The findings indicated that place attachment was positively correlated with the pro-environmental behavior of visitors. Practical findings proved also a positive and significant effect of all place attachment sub constructs on proenvironmental behavior at Old Cairo. Finally, this research concludes by discussing managerial implications, along with suggestions for future research.