Urban tourists' intention towards visiting national parks: an exertion of theory of planned behaviour and expectancy theory

Purpose This study aims to evaluate the key factors affecting the behavioural intention of urban tourists towards visiting national parks by integrating the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and expectancy theory (ET). Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from urban tourists using an online questionnaire developed through Google forms. A total of 489 valid online questionnaires were considered for this study. The proposed research model was empirically evaluated using the structural equation modelling method. Findings According to the results of this research, TPB constructs are significantly and positively associated with the behavioural intention of urban tourists towards visiting national parks in India and out of ET constructs, only expectancy and valence are significantly and positively associated with behavioural intention while instrumentality does not. Research limitations/implications This study manifests the behaviour of urban tourists towards national parks and contributes to academics by incorporating existing literature. The findings of this study also help policymakers in formulating innovative strategies for national parks. It presents an integrated framework that lays the platform for a new study domain on urban tourists' intentions to visit national parks, which will be useful to urban managers, officials and the tourism sector. Furthermore, as the scope of this study is confined to assessing the intentions of urban tourists toward visiting national parks, it is difficult to generalize the findings. Originality/value To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first research of its kind to provide an understanding of the behavioural intention of urban tourists towards visiting the national parks in India by optimizing the TPB and ET.