Main Results and Contributions | The preliminary results reinforce the idea that different people have distinctive
emotional bonds with places. In fact, tourists and residents establish different emotional bonds with mountain sites. Due
their temporary permanence, tourists tend to be less territorially bound, consequently revealing less place-attachment
than residents. Tourist attachment is highly related to traditional travel behavior variables, such as destination choice and
tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty. The evaluation of residents’ place-attachment is also an important predictor of community
satisfaction (Herting & Guest, 1985). Thus, these results could help mountain destination management to enhance placeattachment
and strengthen mountain communities and cultures. It could also be used to develop sustainable tourism in
mountain regions, which could be an incentive for the local economy and consequently improve local residents’ quality
of life.
Limitations | One of the study’s limitations is regarded to the place-attachment dimensions. The study might have
omitted some other important variables, which could influence specific bonds that residents and tourists have with
mountain places.
Another limitation is concerned to the methodology applied. A quantitative approach is limitative because it requires
that an individual classify subjectively a set of predetermined attributes or characterize stimuli using a standardized
classification scale battery (Pike, 2007), which increase the level of risk of omission of important constructs and of using
constructs that are not the most important to respondents.
On the other hand, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) should be applied to a deeper understanding of the main
differences between residents’ and tourists’ place-attachment and the respective gaps.
Since place-attachment is a multidimensional construct, it could be interesting to analyze other important constructs that
could be associated, such as personal characteristics, involvement and motivations of tourists and residents.
Conclusions | Place attachment is conceived as an affective bond or link between people and specific places. One of
the features of modern tourism is the fact that tourist trips and tourism itself could disrupt the sense of belonging to that
specific place. On the other hand, people feel more and more attracted to natural places feeling an affective connection
with them.
The differences on human-place bonding between societal groups, such as tourists and local residents, regarding mountain
places, are interesting because they reveal different perspectives and perceptions of mountains, based on the distinct use
of the that places: living versus visiting