Is tourist walkability and well-being different?

Despite the environmental and health importance of tourist walking, specific research on walking and tourism is limited, with walking in leisure and work contexts often being used as a proxy. To fill this gap, this study identifies the effects of perception of air quality and mitigating climate change on attachment to walking relevant to walkable places and subjective well-being, along with comparing tourism, leisure, and work activity groups in walking, verifying six hypotheses. The findings of this study shed light on the effects of environmental factors (perception of air quality and climate change mitigation) on attachment to walking, providing new knowledge to the tourism and active transport literature. Attachment to walking and walkable place are key predictors for walkers' subjective well-being. Importantly, walking when a tourist is significantly different from walking for leisure and work, providing potential insights for the development of behavioural interventions to encourage walking.

Automated summary

This study examines the relationship between walking and tourism and finds that environmental factors have a significant impact on attachment to walking. Attachment to walking and walkable places are key predictors for walkers' subjective well-being.