Understanding the Impact of Environmental Education on Tourists’ Future Visit Intentions to Leisure Farms in Mountain Regions

Abstract

The research problem of this study is to understand whether people with higher level of EE are more likely to choose farm stays for their vacation. The main aim of this study is to investigate the causal relationship between an individual’s environmental education (EE) and their theory of planned behavior (TPB) decision-making process that leads to future visit intention. A convenient sampling method was used to survey visitors of Toucheng Leisure Farm in the mountain region of Taiwan; and a total of 600 responses were collected. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. The results showed that five of the six hypotheses were supported. This finding suggests that environmental education makes an individual more pro-environmental and susceptible to the social norms about environmental protection. Environmental education, however, does not affect the inconvenience or extra cost incurred by purchasing green products.