An empirical structural model of tourists and places: Progressing involvement and place attachment into tourism

Research which examines the relationship between involvement and place attachment has started to emerge in the leisure literature and this paper reports the findings of a study, which applied these constructs within a tourism context. A survey was conducted with tourists in five South Australian tourism regions that measured respondents’ attitudes towards tourism experiences in South Australia. Involvement was conceptualised as a multidimensional construct consisting of the dimensions of attraction, centrality to lifestyle, self expression and food & wine. Place attachment was also conceptualised as a multidimensional construct of place dependence and place identity. The study developed and tested a structural model that was found to reliably and validly measure predictive relationships between the constructs of involvement and place attachment. The findings indicated that the combined use of involvement and place attachment is applicable in tourism. The implications for destination management are discussed.