Residents’ perceptions of tourism influence and intention to support tourism development: Application of the theory of planned behavior

ABSTRACT

Despite the importance of understanding residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward tourism development, residents’ perceived political influence of tourism remains underexplored. Thus, this study collects a total of 1,164 valid samples from the Hainan Island residents. The study applies the theory of planned behavior and adopts structural equation modeling to explore the effect of residents’ perceived tourism influence (economic, sociocultural, environmental, and political) on their behavioral intention. Moreover, the study investigates the moderating role of place attachment in this relationship. Findings show that the degradation of community culture and the positive environmental and political influences significantly affect residents’ attitudes toward tourism development. In addition, residents’ attitude, social norm, and perceived behavioral control positively affect their intention to support tourism development. Place attachment partially moderates the relationships among the proposed constructs. This study provides significant insights for policymakers and tourism managers and offers practical suggestions to destination marketing organizations for future tourism policy and strategy planning.

摘要

尽管了解居民对旅游业发展的看法和态度很重要, 但检验居民对旅游业政治影响的努力有限。这项研究从海南岛居民中收集了1,164个样本, 并采用计画行为理论和结构方程模型来探讨居民感知到的旅游影响 (经济, 社会文化, 环境和政治) 对其行为意图的影响, 并测试场所依赖的调节作用。调查结果表明, 社区文化的恶化, 正面环境和政治影响对居民旅游业发展的态度有重大影响。此外, 居民的态度, 社会规范和知觉行为控制对他们支持旅游业发展的意愿产生了积极影响。场所依赖亦可以部分调节建议的关系建构。这项研究为旅游业决策者提供了重要的见解, 并为目的地营销组织提供了有关未来旅游业政策和战略规划的实用建议。

KEYWORDS:

• Tourism influence
• Hainan Island
• resident
• theory of planned behavior
• support for tourism development

关键词:

• 旅游影响
• 海南岛居民
• 计划行为
• 支持旅游业发展

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Antony King Fung Wong

Antony King Fung Wong, PhD is Assistant Professor at Hainan University-Arizona State University Joint International Tourism College. His research interests include corporate social responsibility, customer perceived value, occupational stress, and diversity and inclusion (E-mail: [email protected]).

Hong Wu

Hong Wu is Associate Professor at Hainan University. His research focuses on sustainable tourism development and culture effect (E-mail: [email protected]).

Seongseop (Sam) Kim

Seongseop (Sam) Kim, PhD is Professor in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has research interest in food tourism, event tourism, and tourism impacts (E-mail: [email protected]).