A study of Environmental Behaviors among Coastal Tourists (A case Study of Coastal Tourists in Bushehr City during New Year Holiday)

Tourism is now a rapidly growing phenomenon. It is considered one of the factors influencing the development of regions and a supplier of direct and indirect benefits to the hosts. Such an approach, however, causes fears about environmental degradation. Indeed, environment and tourism are related to each other because many of the environmental features attract tourists. This study investigates coastal tourism, the dominant type of tourism in the provinces bordering the sea in Iran, and the environmental behaviors of the coastal tourists. To this end, 267 questionnaires were distributed among coastal tourists in Bushehr city. Research results showed that the relationships between the variables of environmental behaviors, gender, education, marital status, type of residence, type of travel, environmental attitudes, environmental values, environmental knowledge, and length of staying were not significant. However, the results indicated that there was a positive correlation between the environmental behaviors of tourists, environmental concern, and opportunities. Finally, multiple regression analysis indicated that opportunities was the variable which had the main role in the research model.