Personality and leisure activity involvement as predictors of behavioral loyalty in recreationist campers: The moderating role of place dependence

Abstract

With the growing popularity of nature-based recreational activities such as camping, understanding the underlying drivers of campers' loyalty toward these environments has become increasingly critical. Grounded in the five-factor personality theory, the conceptual framework of leisure involvement, and the psychological continuum model, this study investigated how personality influences behavioral loyalty through leisure activity involvement and whether this relationship is moderated by place dependence. Based on data collected from 451 individuals camping in national parks in Turkey, four hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that personality has a significant and positive effect on both leisure activity involvement and behavioral loyalty. Furthermore, leisure activity involvement mediated the effect of personality on behavioral loyalty, and this mediation was moderated by place dependence. These results provided a multidimensional theoretical framework that integrates individual differences, activity-specific involvement, and emotional attachment to place to explain campers' repeat visitation behavior. The study offers important theoretical and practical contributions to the recreation literature.