Study on tourists'' ecotourism perception and attitude towards environmental management:The case of Jinggangshan Scenic Area
游客生态旅游认知及其对环境管理措施的态度——以井冈山风景区为例

The objective of this study was to explore the ecotourism perception an attitude towards environmental management of tourists visiting Jianggangshan Scenic Area in Jiangxi Province, China. A survey was conducted between December of 2005 and December of 2007, using structured questionnaires. A convenient sample of 363 tourists was interviewed during their visit to the scenic area, using the expectations questionnaire. It was found that there is much more perception of "nature base ", "tourism resources protection" and "environmental education" towards ecotourism, but less perception of "communities' interests". And different types of tourists including gender, age, education, occupation, income and traveling ways have distinct perceptions. It was also found that, the attitude towards the five types of environmental management measures, such as "responsibility to environment", "environment and resources protection", "attention to environment impact", "importance to environment education", "respecting local culture" is positive, while the attitude towards "enhancing tourists management" is negative. And several sectors of tourists' characters have significant impact on ecotourism environmental management. For example, the male tourists' attitude towards the environmental management measures consisting of "responsibility to environment", "attention to environment impact", "importance to environment education", and "enhancing tourists management" is more positive than that of female tourists. Furthermore, ecotourism perception is related to some attitude towards ecotourism environmental management according to statistical analysis. The tourists who have perception of "nature base", "tourism resources protection" and "communities' interests" hold a more positive attitude to "importance to environment education". Finally, some countermeasures on enhancing environmental management were discussed in this paper.