Investigating the Leisure Behavior in Iranian Trekking Tourists: The Structural Model of Serious Leisure, Travel Intention and Place Attachment

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to examine the effect of serious leisure on travel intention and place attachment among Iranian trekking tourists. The participants of the study were the trekking tourists of Mount Tochal that stayed at least 12 nights a year in this mountain resort. PASS software was used to determine the sample size of the study. Finally, 275 people participated in the present study. The questionnaires of serious leisure, travel intention, and place attachment were used to collect the data. The descriptive and inferential statistical methods were applied to analyze the data. The results showed that serious leisure and place attachment can predict approximately 24% of the changes in travel intention. Therefore, place attachment is one of the important factors to increase the travel intention of individuals for leisure activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Leisure
• travel intention
• place attachment
• trekking

Ethical Considerations

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Department of Sports Science at Tarbiat Modares University. All ethical principles have been considered in this article. The participants were informed about the purpose of the research and its implementation stages. They were also assured about the confidentiality of their information, and if desired, the research results would be available to them. The Helsinki Declaration (Ethical principles in medical research on humans) was also observed.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all participants in this study.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or nonprofit sectors.