Exploring impacts of vanishing glaciers on pro-environmental behaviour intentions: quantitative approach regarding emotional influences
Résumé
Climate change is severely impacting glacier tourism destinations that lead to the emergence of Last-Chance Tourism in those places. This new tourism trend holds a paradox as last-chance tourist often travels long distance to see natural features threaten by climate change. However, is visitor’s relation with endangered places can impact their intention to act sustainably? Through a quantitative survey conducted in the largest glacier tourism place in France, this working research paper aims to answer this question. Preliminary results show that the majority of the respondents are aware about climate change issues, ready to act for the environment, and emotionally responsive with landscape. Furthermore, results suggest that emotional components of the visit (mainly sadness and anger) as well as the perception of glaciers as reflexive landscape increase visitor intention to adopt pro-environmental behaviour in the future. Further analyses have to be conducted to deepen those results and link pro-environmental behaviour intentions with another construct like Place attachment.