The Relationship between Ecotourism Cognition, Environmental Attitude and Environmental Behavior of Ecotourism Operators in Tainan Coastal Areas, Taiwan

[[abstract]]台南沿海地區有自然生態（海岸濕地）、人文歷史（開台歷史）與產業文化（鹽業、漁業）等豐富的資源，十分適合生態旅遊的發展。生態旅遊於本區從1996年開始發展，主要集中於七股、四草、北門等沿海地區，至今已近二十年，有水域及陸域兩種活動形式，大多以解說導覽的方式進行。自2009年台江國家公園成立以來，區內生態旅遊更加蓬勃發展，遊客數遽增，第一線從業人員對遊客所呈現的解說內容與活動行程的進行方式，皆攸關當地環境衝擊的程度。本研究目的在瞭解台南沿海地區生態旅遊從業人員之生態旅遊認知、環境態度與環境行為意向的現況，並進一步探討生態旅遊認知、環境態度及環境行為意向三個變數之間的關係。根據文獻回顧定義出生態旅遊認知、環境態度及環境行為意向之構面並設計問項，於2013年8月至11月收集有效問卷共151份，就實際填答之資料利用因素分析法重整出新的構面，以發現受訪者的潛在共同特質。新構面平均得分數較高依序為：「永續發展」、「環境意識的展現」、「環境教育與自然體驗」、與「人類對自然的義務」，顯示從業人員具備環境倫理的價值觀。再利用集群分析法將受訪者依「生態旅遊認知」的差異歸類，發現認知程度有所不同，可分成「認知程度較高」及「認知程度較低」兩個類群。最後以迴歸分析探討三個變數之間的關係，結果顯示生態旅遊認知與環境態度皆正向影響環境行為意向，且依生態旅遊認知程度的不同，三個變數的關係也所不同：在生態旅遊認知較高的類群，生態旅遊認知對於環境行為意向的影響力大於認知較低的類群；在認知較低的類群，環境態度對於環境行為意向的影響力大於生態旅遊認知。因此，本研究建議，對於第一線的生態旅遊從業人員，培育的過程可加強其對於生態旅遊的正確認知，培養其對環境友善的態度，以期提升其負責任的環境行為意向，最終的目的在期許從業人員於自然環境執行其工作任務時，能發揮重要的媒介角色與環境教育的功能，引導遊客採取友善環境的旅遊行為，以提升生態旅遊產業之品質，儘量降低旅遊活動對環境所產生的負面衝擊。 Tainan coastal area, characterized by the ecological resources of coastal wetlands, the early history of Han people colonized from China to Taiwan and the culture of traditional salt producing and fish farming, is very suitable for developing ecotourism. The ecotourism in this area has begun since early 1990s, originated and focused on Cigu, Sihcao and Biemen districts, either on land or waters in the forms of narration delivered by locate people mainly trained by environmental organizations. The quantity of tourists has been growing explosively since the National Park established in 2009, causing great impact to the natural environment. Therefore, the performances of the ecotourism operators on site are very import issues, since they have great influence on the ways of tourism and behaviors of tourists. This study investigated the status of ecotourism cognition, environmental attitude and environmental behavior intension of the ecotourism operators, and explored the relationship between these variables. 151 valid questionnaires were collected during October and November in 2013 in the Tainan coastal area. We used factor analysis to extract new facets of each variable and cluster analysis to cluster the samples by ecotourism cognition. The result is that both ecotourism cognition and environmental attitude have positive influence on the environmental behavior intension, and the extent of influence is different by the level of ecotourism cognition. Therefore, we suggest that reinforcing the ecotourism cognition and the environmental attitude of the operators on site is beneficial as to increasing their intension of pro-environmental behavior, which could help guide the tourists behaving in a responsible manner and reduce the impacts of environment caused by development of tourism