Abstract Developing natural areas that are utilised for outdoor sports is undertaken to disperse high concentrations of tourists from the city out into rural areas to revitalise regional communities. To promote outdoor sports tourism with an emphasis on economic and environmental impacts, increasing environment awareness among marketers, tourists and local residents is critical. The purpose of this study was to clarify the influence of attachment to natural areas thorough outdoor leisure activities on pro-environment behaviour. The study sample (n = 146) consisted of Japanese visitors to an outdoor leisure facility located in Ikeda, Fukui Prefecture in Japan. Following previous research, we employed a place attachment scale that was designed to measure two concepts, including place dependence (i.e. functional attachment) and place identity (i.e. emotional attachment). Structural equation modelling confirmed the strength of place dependence’s ability to predict place-related pro-environment behavioural intentions. However, place identity was not a significant predictor of pro-environment behaviour. Programme development that takes into consideration how place dependence leads to place identity and how place identity affects pro-environment behavioural intentions may be needed to execute sustainable natural environment development thorough outdoor sports.

中文翻译：

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日本自然区户外运动参与者的地方依恋与环保行为之间的关系以发展可持续的户外运动旅游

摘要 开发用于户外运动的自然区域是为了将高度集中的游客从城市分散到农村地区，以振兴区域社区。为了促进重视经济和环境影响的户外运动旅游，提高营销人员、游客和当地居民的环境意识至关重要。本研究的目的是阐明对自然区域的依恋通过户外休闲活动对亲环境行为的影响。研究样本 (n = 146) 由日本游客组成，这些游客位于日本福井县池田市的户外休闲设施。根据之前的研究，我们采用了一个地方依恋量表来衡量两个概念，包括地方依赖（即功能依恋）和地方身份（即 情感依恋）。结构方程模型证实了地点依赖性预测与地点相关的亲环境行为意图的能力的强度。然而，地方身份并不是亲环境行为的重要预测因素。可能需要考虑地方依赖性如何导致地方身份以及地方身份如何影响亲环境行为意图的程序开发，以通过户外运动执行可持续的自然环境开发。