Nature-based tourism: a study on consumer behavior when participating in camping activities

Abstract

This chapter is based on consumer behavior theories and analyses consumers' perspectives about camping as a tourism alternative. It explores motivations and several relevant factors that influence the attitudes and behaviors of tourists regarding camping activities. The methodology was qualitative and used focus groups as a data collection tool. A content and thematic analysis was adopted as data mining technique. Results provide empirical support to the influence of subjective norms, relevant others' preference for camping, and sustainable consumer profile on attitudes toward camping which influence camping intention. Moreover, camping intention, motivations, relevant others' preference for camping, perceived control, and past experience affect camping behavior. Overall, this chapter shows that consumer behavior theories and models provide very interesting cues on campers' decision process, offering alternative and complementing views to the extant literature, namely to the studies using the popular push-pull approach.