Proceedings of World Business Research Conference
21 - 23 April 2014, Novotel World Trade Centre, Dubai, UAE, ISBN: 978-1-922069-48-1
Building Urban Ecotourism: Investigating the
Relationship between Endurance Involvement in Cycling
and Subjective Well-Being
Megha Jain*
Purpose: The evolving concept of urban ecotourism is increasingly
gaining popularity. With an ever increasing stress on sustaining and
conservation of available resources, urban ecotourism can offer unique
opportunities to achieve such goals. As part of urban ecotourism
initiatives, a growing number of cities are promoting cycling tourism and
constructing bicycle lanes throughout their jurisdictions. As a result,
cycling, which has been threatened by growing motorization and loss of
street space, is seeing resurgence. Evidently, cycling related tourism
has exhibited strong growth in recent years and is gaining increasing
acceptance among consumers. While the acceptance of cycling as a
leisure activity is well documented, little is known about how participation
in cycling as a leisure and recreational activity influences the subjective
well-being of people. The current research explores the influence of
involvement in cycling on perceived freedom during cycling as leisure
activity and the subsequent effect on tourist (cyclist) subjective
well-being. The study also provides an account of the moderating effect
of two demographic variables, namely age and marital status.
Design/Methodology: A field study was conducted in Taiwan, where
400 questionnaires were collected from urban cycling enthusiasts in four
major Taiwanese cities, Greater Taipei in the north, Taichung in the
centre, and, Kaohsiung and Pingtung in the south. The study employed
variance based structural equation modeling technique, specifically
Partial Least Squares (PLS), to assess the measurement model, the
structural model, and the proposed hypotheses.
Findings: The results indicate that urban cyclists’ perceived freedom in
cycling acts as a mediator in the relationship between cyclists’
endurance involvement and subjective well-being. Demographic
variables, specifically age and marital status are also found to moderate
the effect of cyclists’ endurance involvement on perceived freedom in
cycling. The current research provides important insights into the
domain
and
the
findings
are
encouraging
for
the
growing urban ecotourism sector.
Keywords: urban ecotourism; leisure and recreation; perceived freedom;
endurance involvement; subjective well-being
Field of research: Management (Hospitality Industry Management)
*Assistant Professor, School of Real Estate, RICS School of Built Environment, Amity University,
Block - F2, Fifth Floor, Amity University, Sector – 125, Noida- 201313 (UP), India,
Email: mei.megha@gmail.com
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