The motivations and environmental attitudes of nature-based visitors to protected areas in Hong Kong

Abstract

Understanding nature-based visitors’ motivations and environmental attitudes is important for the development of appropriate visitor management strategies for protected areas. This study categorised Hong Kong nature-based visitors of protected areas into different subgroups according to their visiting motivations and environmental attitudes. The association between their motivations and environmental attitudes was also assessed. A total of 585 completed responses were collected from on-site questionnaire surveys, and three subgroups of protected area visitors, according to their visiting motivations, i.e. travel for novelty, travel for recreation and travel to escape, have been identified. Similarly, three subgroups, namely conservation and development, conservation priority and leisure rights, were identified based on visitors’ environmental attitudes. Results showed that visitors’ environmental attitudes and their motivations were found to be closely related, indicating that visitors with higher environmental concerns tended to travel for novelty and those exhibiting a lower environmental concerns travel to escape.

Keywords:

• nature-based visitors
• motivations
• environmental attitudes
• protected areas
• Hong Kong

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the three anonymous referees for their helpful comments on a previous version of the paper. This research was supported by a start-up research grant at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (RG45/11-12-R3319).