DEVELOPING HOST COMMUNITY’S SUPPORT MODEL FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN PURI REGION, INDIA

Abstract

The study aims to develop a host community’s support model for tourism development based on the principles of Social Exchange Theory for heritage tourism destinations in a developing country. For the case study, three communities from the Puri region, a popular heritage tourism destination of eastern India, are selected. The survey instrument was a questionnaire survey, and 450 samples were collected. A scale was developed to measure the host community’s attitudes and perceptions. The measurement scale comprises seven factors: six exogenous factors: Economic Impact; Positive Socio-Cultural Impact; Development and Maintenance of Heritage and Infrastructure; Image of the Region; Negative Socio-Cultural Impact; Environmental Issues, and one endogenous factor: Support for Tourism Development. The structural relationship between exogenous factors and endogenous factors was examined through Structural Equation Modelling. The result confirmed that the perceived tourism impacts significantly influence the host community’s attitude. The findings suggest that when the host community perceives the positive tourism impacts, their support for tourism development gets influenced positively and vice versa. This confirms the explanatory power of the perceived tourism impacts to explain the host communities’ attitude toward tourism development and the applicability of Social Exchange Theory. However, the findings contradict Butler’s Tourism Area Life Cycle model in describing the host community’s attitude toward the destination in the development stage.