sustainability Article Place-Related Concepts and Pro-Environmental Behavior in Tourism Research: A Conceptual Framework Nam Hoai Dang and Oswin Maurer *   Citation: Dang, N.H.; Maurer, O. Place-Related Concepts and Pro-Environmental Behavior in Tourism Research: A Conceptual Framework. Sustainability 2021, 13, 11861. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su132111861 Academic Editor: Haywantee Ramkissoon Received: 15 September 2021 Accepted: 19 October 2021 Published: 27 October 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Faculty of Economics and Management, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Piazza Università 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy; hoainam.dang@economics.unibz.it * Correspondence: oswin.maurer@unibz.it; Tel.: +39-320-922-4204 Abstract: The negative impacts of tourism development are increasing environmental problems related to the destruction of the global environment, calling on scholars and practitioners to look more at the relationship between people and place. In this concern, place attachment has attracted wide interest, especially from environmental psychologists, to investigate this relationship. This paper presents different approaches to analyze place attachment and related concepts to determine pro-environmental behavior in tourism consumption. It identifies critical gaps in the literature and extends existing theoretical frameworks by considering additional factors, and the entire process from input (participation), through mediations (attachment, meanings, satisfaction) to output (behavior). It reviews the definition of place attachment and essential place-related concepts and outlines why the suggested framework is necessary to extend the current body of research in people–place relation- ships. It also broadly evaluates current scales and measurement models of constructs included and the structural model of this framework, thereby making recommendations relevant for subsequent empirical research. Finally, contributions to theory, limitations, and suggestions are discussed. Keywords: place attachment; place meaning; place satisfaction; pro-environmental behavior; activity participation 1. Introduction The tourism industry has flourished over decades and become one of the most im- portant global economic activities. This has been bringing new opportunities for many countries, regions, cities, and local communities while at the same time posing numerous challenges. Undeniably, tourism development has been significantly contributing to socio- economic growth in terms of income, employment, improvement of living standards, the guarantee of social security, preservation of cultures, and protection of the environment. However, tourism’s growth has been imposing threats to the environment and societies, such as escalating traffic congestion leading to air pollution, increasing pressure on infras- tructure while disrupting natural landscape structures, and unbalancing creatures’ habitats. Tourism activities have also raised the burden on waste in tourist attractions, causing soil and water pollution risks. As one of the prominent actors that have been directly affecting the environment, humans and their behaviors are the keys to practice sustainable development [1]. Indeed, not all tourists behave eco-friendly, which, in many cases, might cause accumulated negative impacts. With a large and constantly increasing number, tourists have been imposing significant influences on the destination’s environment by their waste disposal behaviors, attitudes toward the environment, and choices of tourism services. Under these circumstances, besides seizing tourism development opportunities, with all its future dynamics, environmental protection is also essential to be taken into account. Hence, it becomes imperative to research pro-environmental behaviors and how to trigger them in tourism consumption. Sustainability 2021, 13, 11861. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111861 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability