https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7138-0280
![Sample our Museum and Heritage Studies journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5945/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Museum-Heritage-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Community participation is critical to tourism development, and how to promote community participation has become one of the major concerns of tourism practitioners and scholars. Although several tourism researchers have applied the MOA model to study the influencing factors of community participation, there is still a lack of literature that can provide adequate empirical support to substantiate the predictive power of the MOA model for examining community participation in the context of tourism, particularly in the context of heritage tourism. Given this gap, this research aims to investigate the influences of motivation, opportunity, and ability on community participation in heritage conservation and heritage tourism development by using the MOA model. This study was conducted in Taiping, Malaysia, a famous heritage town. Data were analysed through complementary methods of partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The findings of PLS-SEM showed the significance of residents’ perceptions towards positive socio-cultural impacts and opportunity for community participation, whereas the results of fsQCA enriched the interpretation of more complicated relationships and uncovered multiple configurations to enhance community participation. Additionally, this study also provided several practical implications for local authorities to promote community participation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Puvaneswaran Kunasekaran
Dr Puvaneswaran Kunasekaran is a senior lecturer at the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events, Taylor’s University, Malaysia. His research has mainly focused on community-based tourism, indigenous tourism, sustainable tourism practices and cultural tourism studies. He is also the Honorary Treasurer of ASEAN Tourism Research Association (ATRA) and Associate Director of Centre for Research and Innovation in Tourism (CRiT), Taylor’s University, Malaysia. He has published numerous scientific papers in reputable academic journals and books related to sustainability, tourism, and community development areas.
S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh
Dr S. Mostafa Rasoolimanesh is an associate professor and director of Centre for Research and Innovation in Tourism (CRiT), Taylor’s University, Malaysia. His research interest areas include sustainable tourism, community participation, residents’ perceptions toward tourism development, and advanced quantitative analysis approaches. He has published widely in high impact journals such as Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, International Journal of Tourism Research, and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management among others. Mostafa serves as a member of the editorial board of several reputed international journals.
Mingzhuo Wang
Mingzhuo Wang is an associate professor at School of Tourism and Geography Science, Qingdao University, China. His research areas include sustainable tourism, rural tourism, social entrepreneurship, and travel behaviour. He has published several articles in high impact journals such as Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Current Issues in Tourism, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, and Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
Neethiahnanthan Ari Ragavan
Prof Dr Neethiahnanthan Ari Ragavan is the president of ASEAN Tourism Research Association (ATRA) and has been active in various international boards such as Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). His research areas include higher education models and system, hotel and tourism development and innovation; and, food and culture. He is also the executive dean of faculty of social sciences and leisure management of Taylor’s University, overseeing 5 schools and 1 institute.
Zuliah Abd Hamid
Dr Zuliah Hamid is a senior lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UiTM). Her research interest areas include indigenous tourism, homestay tourism, Islamic tourism, tourists behaviour, and tourism marketing. She is actively involved in several national research grants to understand and uplift the well-being of rural communities by using tourism as a tool. Apart from this, she is actively involved in ASEAN Tourism Research Association (ATRA) activities, especially academic initiatives, in reviving the tourism industry post-pandemic.