Beyond cost–benefit analysis: resident emotions, appraisals and support toward tourism performing arts developments

Abstract

ABSTRACT Abundant literature has examined resident reactions to tourism by their perceptions of perceived impacts, overlooking individual emotional responses that might be elicited by psychological causes toward specific types of tourism. This paper employs cognitive appraisal theory to explore the existence and causes of resident emotional responses to tourism performing arts developments. A survey of 438 residents was conducted in Hangzhou, China. Findings revealed that love and interest were dominant emotions. Appraisals of pleasantness, goal congruence, goal relevance, fairness, certainty and coping potential positively elicited happiness, love and gratefulness yet were negatively related to sadness and anger. Worry was elicited by low coping potential and high certainty of outcomes while anger was positively related to other attributions for tourism impacts. Results also detected that resident positive emotions had much more effects than negative emotions on their supports to TPA. The findings have implications for the way destinations position and promote tourism developments to encourage community engagement and manage resident hostility.