Structural Relationships among Antecedents to Perceived Value of Ecotourism for Sichuan Giant Pandas in China

The purpose of this study is to investigate causal relationships among interpretation satisfaction, environmental attitudes, place attachment, destination loyalty, and perceived value of ecotourism for tourists visiting the Chengdu Panda Base (CPB) in China. An online and an on-site field survey were administered to respondents aged 50 years old and older who use the Internet relatively little. A total of 243 questionnaires were collected and analyzed. The results drawn from the structural model indicate that, first, the satisfaction level regarding the interpretation service positively affects the balance of nature and place attachment (place dependence and place identity) of tourists. Second, as tourists hold higher regard for the balance of nature and stronger place attachment to a tourist site, they tend to hold a stronger destination loyalty; conversely, anthropocentrism correlates negatively with destination loyalty. Lastly, the results show that the more destination loyalty tourists had, the more highly they valued ecotourism in the CPB, which in turn increased the amount of money they were willing to pay to enjoy the CPB, indicating that destination loyalty positively affects tourists’ perceived value of ecotourism.