Wildlife Conservation Centre as Eco-tourism Destination

Sharifah Nur Hidayah Syed Alias; Manohar Mariapan; Azlizam Aziz; Zaiton Samdin

doi:10.47405/mjssh.v8i9.2503

Sharifah Nur Hidayah Syed Alias Department of Recreation and Ecotourism, Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti of Putra Malaysia, 43400, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Manohar Mariapan Department of Recreation and Ecotourism, Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti of Putra Malaysia, 43400, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Azlizam Aziz Department of Recreation and Ecotourism, Faculty of Forestry and Environment, Universiti of Putra Malaysia, 43400, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Zaiton Samdin Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Product, Universiti of Putra Malaysia, 43400, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47405/mjssh.v8i9.2503

Keywords: Ecotourism, Emotional attachment, Pro-environmental behaviour

Abstract

It is commonly acknowledged that human activities, such as deforestation, are primarily responsible for the destruction of natural habitats and food sources for wildlife has forced them to encroach upon human settlements, resulting in conflicts between humans and wildlife. Consequently, these have forced wildlife to encroach upon human settlements, resulting in conflicts between humans and wildlife. While authorities have taken steps to address the issue, it is essential for them to start prioritizing preventive strategies including the environmental education program. In such program, the theory of emotional attachment (EA) can serve as a valuable tool in finding ways to educate people in protecting the environment by significantly impact human behaviour. Realizing the potential of wildlife conservation centre as ecotourism destination, specifically in resource conservation, this paper aims to understand the viability of the National Elephant Conservation Centre as a desirable ecotourism site in promoting pro-environmental behaviour and how tourists develop their emotional attachment potential toward the centre. A survey research was carried out among visitors at a wildlife conservation centre by employing the Structural Equation Modeling as the central framework in further examination of relationship between variables. Finding of the study showed that emotional attachment was confirmed with three multi-dimensions include place identity, place dependence and place affect had significant relationship with pro-environmental behaviour of domestic tourist at the centre. This study had proposed that wildlife conservation should be promoted as environmental education in carrying out its roles in propagating pro-environmental messages.

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