Introduction: With the increase in the presence of tourists in tourist areas, there are expected to be potential threats to the natural habitat. For this reason, finding ways to increase the number of tourists with responsible behavior has become a very important concern to maximize the sustainability of tourism. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of destination attractiveness on the environmentally responsible behavior of climbers with the mediating role of place attachment.
Methods: This research is a cross-sectional study applied in terms of objective, descriptive correlation in terms of method and survey in data collection. The study's statistical population was all mountain climbers at the peak of Tal Anbar in 2022. Klin's theory (2014) was used to estimate the sample size due to the uncertainty of the number of the statistical population. The research tool was three standard questionnaires of destination attractiveness, environmentally responsible behavior, and attachment to the place Cheng et al. (2013). The face and content validity of the questionnaires were confirmed by experts and reliability was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability indices. A total of 203 respondents answered the questionnaires perfectly and in an available manner. Structural equation modeling including confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis was used for data analysis.
Results: The results showed that all the relationships between the variables of the research model are significant at the confidence level of 0.99 and all the relationships between the variables of the model were confirmed. Also, the findings of the research indicate that more than 49% of the attractiveness of the destination on responsible environmental behavior is explained through indirect and variable attachment to the place.
Conclusion: According to the results, it can be stated that creating more environmental awareness among tourists and inducing environmentally responsible behavior is a necessary prerequisite for tourism.