Community-Based Tourism as a Sustainable Direction in Destination Development: An Empirical Examination of Visitor Behaviors

Heesup Han,Hyungseo Bobby Ryu,Amr Al-Ansi,Wansoo Kim,Taeyeon Eom

doi:10.3390/su11102864

Heesup Han, Hyungseo Bobby Ryu + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su11102864

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Abstract

Community-based tourism is an emerging form of sustainable tourism. Community-based tourism often brings various financial/non-financial benefits to local communities and maximizes sustainability at the local level. The present study was designed to uncover the role of community-based tourism performance in elucidating travelers’ post-purchase decision-making process for sustainable destination products by considering the moderating effect of sense of belonging. A quantitative approach was adopted for the achievement of the research objective. A field survey conducted at community-based tourism destinations was utilized for data collection. The acceptable level of the measurement quality was demonstrated. The results of the structural equation modeling provided empirical evidence that community-based tourism performance significantly affects the formation of travelers’ post-purchase intentions. In addition, the adequacy of the higher-order structure of community-based tourism performance was identified. The community-based tourism performance and intention relationship was also moderated by sense of belonging. With a lack of empirical research about community-based tourism, the findings of this research significantly add to the existing body of knowledge in sustainable tourism.

Highlights

For the past few decades, sustainable development has increasingly become a vital issue at every tourism destination [1,2,3]
Our result revealed that the higher-order latent factor is significantly and positively related to eight first-order constructs (1 = local culture, 2 = local entertainments, 3 = local people, 4 = local natural environment, 5 = local superstructure, 6 = local food and dishes, 7 = local products, 8 = local accommodations)
It was apparent that the eight first-order variables (1 = local culture, 2 = local entertainments, 3 = local people, 4 = local natural environment, 5 = local superstructure, 6 = local food and dishes, 7 = local products, 8 = local accommodations) significantly belong to one higher-order concept of community-based tourism performance

Summary

Introduction

For the past few decades, sustainable development has increasingly become a vital issue at every tourism destination [1,2,3]. Sustainable tourism as a form of pro-social/pro-environmental traveling behavior has received increasing attention from destination researchers/practitioners as well as visitors [4,5]. Many destinations and tourism companies in the destinations have launched a variety of sustainable initiatives for preserving nature, conserving natural/local resources, protecting cultural authenticity, and achieving socio-economic benefits [2,3,6]. The successful development of the community-based tourism makes important contributions to bringing diverse benefits to the local destination (e.g., boosting quality job creations, inducing local economic development, helping eco-friendly tourism development, enabling community empowerment, and preserving the traditional value of the local community) [8,9,10]. Travelers of the community-based tourism destinations are encouraged to engage in practicing pro-social/pro-environmental tourism behaviors in an active manner [5,11]

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