Personal Norms and Visitor Compliance: A Case Study of Wildlife Tourism in Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

Abstract

What does it mean to be responsible? We are all responsible for our actions, but individuals’ awareness and notions of responsibility can fail to correspond with their actions and behaviors. Understanding how environmental awareness forms and how it translates into responsible environmental behavior is a central question in this era of heightened environmental concern. These issues are particularly important in the case of tourism, which is often promoted as a form of economic development that supports biodiversity protection and conservation for fragile ecosystems and protected areas. This study proposes that the Norm Activation Model (Schwartz, 1977) is a valuable tool for understanding visitors’ behavior. However, the majority of previous research that has employed the model has failed to include all proposed model variables. This study examines a more complete interpretation of the model, and findings support the role of personal norms in predicting visitors' behavior in Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica. More importantly, these findings shed new light on the conceptualization of the model’s variables, activator variables and their role in predicting environmentally friendly behavior in this context.