Do Residents Support Night Tourism in the Historic District? The Case of Wuhu Ancient City

ABSTRACT

The study was to establish a framework that integrates sense of place, involvement, perceived costs and benefits of night tourism impact, and support for night tourism development was developed based on Social Exchange Theory (SET). In Wuhu Ancient City, a historic district well-known for its night tourism, a questionnaire survey was carried out, 306 valid questionnaires received. The findings showed that while perceived costs of night tourism impact have a negative influence on night tourism development support, perceived advantages of night tourism impact had a favorable impact. Perceived costs and benefits of the impact of night tourism, support for the development of night tourism as well, were influenced by sense of place. On the other hand, involvement had no bearing on the support for the development of night tourism; rather, it simply affected the perceived costs and advantages of the impact. Additionally, from the standpoint of local support, the study suggests and countermeasures for the development of night tourism in historic district.

摘要

本研究探讨了居民的地方感和参与感如何影响他们对夜间旅游影响的感知成本和收益，进而影响他们支持夜间旅游发展的态度。本研究基于社会交换理论，构建了一个结合地方感、居民参与、夜间旅游影响的成本感知和利益感知、居民夜游发展支持等变量的框架。本研究在以夜间旅游活动闻名的历史街区——芜湖古城进行问卷调查获取数据，收到 306 份有效问卷，并利用结构方程模型(SEM) 分析了这些变量之间的关系。研究结果表明，夜游影响的感知收益正向影响夜游发展支持，而夜游影响的感知成本负向影响夜游发展支持。地方感既影响夜游影响的感知成本和收益，也影响夜游发展支持。另一方面，参与仅影响夜游影响的感知成本和收益，而对夜游发展支持没有影响。本研究还从居民支持的角度对历史街区夜游发展提出了对策建议。

KEYWORDS:

• sense of place
• involvement
• historic districts
• night tourism
• Perceived costs and benefits
• social exchange theory

关键词:

• 地方感
• 参与
• 历史街区
• 夜间旅游
• 感知成本和收益
• 社会交换理论

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Top Talent Project of Anhui Business College, Number: Smbjrc202108; Technological Innovation Platform Application Research Project at Anhui Business College, Number: 2023ZDG04.

Notes on contributors

Chaoyi Cao

Cao Chaoyi is a Ph.D. student in School of Business and Economics at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia, who is also a lecturer in School of International Business and Tourism at Anhui Business College, Anhui, China. His research interests include wine tourism and tourists’ behavior and the application of social media in tourism (E-mail: [email protected]).

Sridar Ramachandran

Sridar Ramachandran is Professor of Department of Management and Marketing, School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. His research interests focus on sustainable tourism, marketing, and research philosophy (E-mail: [email protected]).

Mayling Siow

Mayling Siow is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Design and Architecture at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Her research interests include rural tourism, public policy, and actor network theory (E-mail: [email protected]).

Thanam Subramaniam

Thanam Subramaniam is Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of Community Engagement in Centre for Research and Innovation in Tourism, Sustainable Tourism Impact Lab and Senior Lecturer in School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events at Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Her research interests are ecotourism, tourism marketing, and tourist experiences (E-mail: [email protected]).

Liu Lulu

Liu Lulu is a PhD student in the School of Business and Economics at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. She is also a Lecturer in the School of Management at Henan Institute of Technology, Henan, China. Her research interest is tourism organizational behavior (E-mail: [email protected]).