Dang Hoai Nam (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy) ‘Predicting visitor's attachment and pro-environmental behaviors in nature-based tourism: cross-country research in Vietnam and Italy’.

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Abstract 
Studies of environmental psychology in the tourism context often measure place attachment and other place-related factors to predict visitors' behaviors in natural areas. Nevertheless, more resonant causes, such as what formulates place attachment, still receive little attention. Understanding which antecedents and how they affect attachment may enable a more accurate prediction of behaviors toward the environment. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the effect of activity participation and place value on place attachment and the pro-environmental behaviors of visitors in natural areas. A sample of 823 observations was collected online from locals and tourists visiting two natural areas in Vietnam and Italy for cross-country research. Using PLS-SEM, the research evaluates the measurement model and tests the proposed theoretical framework. The results show that activity participation and place value can predict place attachment and pro-environmental behaviors well. Furthermore, the place value also presented a good mediating role in all the effects it is involved in, becoming a newly emerging but potentially critical place-related concept in the future research models. Eventually, successfully validating the model's generalization in cross-country research allows its wide application in tourism management in numerous natural areas worldwide.