Resident Perceptions of Sustainable Tourism in Chongdugou, China

Abstract

This article examines resident perceptions of sustainable agritourism among four subvillages in Chongdugou, China. The prism of sustainability, with institutional, economic, ecological, and sociocultural dimensions, served as the theoretical lens. We hypothesized both main effects (distance of subvillage from village entrance and employment in the tourism industry) and interaction effects for the four dimensions of sustainability and overall satisfaction with tourism. Resident surveys (n = 383) were distributed among the four subvillages. The main effect for village location was statistically significant in all five two-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs), while the main effect for tourism employment was only significant for the economic model. The interaction term was significant for the sociocultural dimension, approached significance for the institutional and the economic, and was not statistically significant for the ecological dimension or tourism satisfaction. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings for understanding tourism sustainability are discussed.

Keywords:

• chongdugou
• prism of sustainability
• sustainable tourism indicators
• tourist resident satisfaction

Notes

Note. Only factor loadings .40 or greater reported. Items measured on a 5-point agreement ranging from 1 = “strongly disagree” and 5 = “strongly agree.”

Asterisk indicates items recoded to positive direction.

Note. χ² = 51.50; p < .001; Cramer's V = .373.

Note. Cell entries are means.

^a–c Different superscripts are different at p < .05 based on the Scheffé post hoc test.

^d Indices computed using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 “strongly disagree” to 5 “strongly agree.”

^e One-item agreement scale (1 “strongly disagree” to 5 “strongly agree”).

^f Scores in parentheses represent mean main effect of the four subvillages on the dependent variables.