Factors influencing tourists' litter management behavior in mountainous tourism areas in China

Bringing self-generated litter down the mountain is an emerging pro-environmental behavior to solve the problem of trail's litter management in China. This study is the first attempt to explore a theoretical explanation model that explicates tourists' complex intention-forming process for engaging in it. The study extended the Theory of Planned Behavior model, including three additional explaining variables (environmental theory knowledge, environmental practice knowledge, and incentive measures), as well as a moderator of travel companions between subjective norm and the behavioral intention. The data were collected in questionnaire survey samples of 372 tourists in Huangshan National Park (HNP) and analyzed by the method of the structural equation model. The results showed that (1) attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and incentive measures significantly affected the behavioral intention; (2) environmental theory knowledge and environmental practice knowledge had indirect effects on the behavioral intention via the mediator of attitude toward the behavior; and (3) the strength of the relationship for the family group between subjective norm and the behavioral intention was significantly greater than the non-family group. Finally, we presented several effective suggestions to improve tourists' intention of bringing self-generated litter down the mountain.