Tourists’ intention to adopt forest conservation behavior in the Zagros region of Iran

According to various studies, forest destruction in different regions of the world is mainly driven by human factors. In this context, although the tourism industry can create significant economic opportunities, it also poses damages and risks to the environment, including forests. Meanwhile, forest destruction by the tourism industry, and specifically by tourists, has not been sufficiently addressed in studies. Accordingly, investigating the factors affecting the improvement of tourists’ conservation behavior in relation to forests is essential. Therefore, the main purpose of this research was to investigate tourists’ intention to adopt forest conservation behavior in the Zagros region of Iran. The statistical population of the present study included all tourists over 15 years old who visited the forests of the Charzabhar region located in Kermanshah province, western Iran. In this research, the extended protection motivation theory (PMT), with the addition of the environmental concerns variable, was used as the theoretical framework of the research. The data collection tool included a questionnaire that was developed based on the research framework. Data were analyzed in two sections, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, using SPSS₂₀ and Smart PLS₄ software. Based on the results, all constructs and hypotheses of the research were confirmed in both the original PMT and the extended PMT model. The original PMT model explained 44.1% of the variance in forest conservation from the perspective of tourists, and the extended model explained 64.7%. In other words, the extended PMT model, with the addition of the environmental concerns variable, increased the model’s ability to explain forest conservation from the perspective of tourists by 20.6%. Also, the response efficacy variable was identified as the most important factor. Therefore, it is suggested that policymakers in this field improve tourists’ understanding of the effectiveness of their conservation behaviors and actions in the forest through various means, such as social media, in order to develop conservation behaviors by tourists.