Tourists of natural areas: Place-attachment and involvement

Tourism studies have experienced significant advances through the intersection of theories developed in several disciplines: Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Geography, Marketing, among others. This interconnection is visible in two concepts that have received increasing attention from researchers as they measure how tourists relate themselves with tourism products and with the destinations visited: Involvement from Marketing and Place Attachment from Environmental Psychology and Geography. The study presented here intends to contribute to a more depth study of the relationship between those two constructs, specifically in the natural areas’ context. The main objective is to create a scale to measure involvement of tourists with destinations both as products (involvement) and as places (place‐attachment). Insights from an empirical study of 615 natural areas’ tourists indicate that this multi‐ dimensional scale incorporates constructs from involvement and place‐attachment. Discussion centers on the implications of this scale for theory development and management decisions. Tourism firms may better understand the involvement of tourists with the buying decisions and also how they connect with the destinations they visit. Also, managers can understand the impact of these two types of linkages can have on tourists’ decision making, namely in what regards to natural areas. Directions for future research are also presented.