Abstract:

The nature-based tourism market is rapidly growing according to the increasing interests and demands of tourists every day. Therefore, the understanding of the reasons for individuals participating in nature-based activities and their expectations and the prediction of their future behavior is considered important for the various stakeholders in the market concerned to be able to position themselves properly and develop appropriate competitive strategies. There are two main objectives of working here. The first objective is to identify the state of internal motivations of those who participate in nature-based activities (rehat, socialization, excitement, self-esteem and self-realization) of the behavioral intention. The second objective is to determine the socio-demographic elements that affect the behavioral intentions of the participants in nature-based activities (age, gender, civil status, level of education and income of the household). The study, which was conducted with action for these purposes, was carried out by 397 people from various natural groups located in Eskişehir with an online survey application from 18 June 2021 to 10 July 2021. The research finds that the future behavioral intentions of individuals who participate in nature-based activities are influenced by several internal motivation elements. The findings from the analysis show that the four internal motivation elements, “rest”, “socialization”, “self-respect” and “self-performing”, are the behavioral intention, and that “heyecan” is not a meaningful contributor to behavioral intention. Moreover, among the socio-demographic characteristics, it has also been found that only the gender variable affects the behavioral intention, and that the male participants’ behavioral intentions towards future nature-based activities are higher than the female participants.

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