Development of a Scale to Measure Intrapersonal Psychological Empowerment to Participate in Local Tourism Development: Applying the Sociopolitical Control Scale Construct to Tourism (SPCS-T)

Eunseong Jeong,Shieun Lee,Alan Dixon Brown,Changsup Shim

doi:10.3390/su13074057

Eunseong Jeong, Shieun Lee + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13074057

Copy DOI

Abstract

Future tourism development must be guided by thoughtful and effective policies that represent the interests of a majority of community members to maximize the positive and minimize the negative impact on communities. Effective policies rely on the support of an engaged citizenry made up of residents who feel psychologically empowered. The primary purpose of this study was to develop a topic-specific measure of sociopolitical control in order to provide a reliable quantitative tool to evaluate tourism development in host communities. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded indices of an acceptable model fit that support the construct validity of a revised Sociopolitical Control Scale for Tourism (SPCS-T). The present study provides empirical evidence that policymakers and researchers interested in gauging support for future tourism policies can successfully apply the SPCS-T in the tourism context.

Highlights

Anton ClavéTourism development has long been recognized as a leading economic force and has the potential to play a role in rejuvenating host communities in tourist destinations.At the same time, mass tourism has been associated with unforeseen negative effects such as destruction of the ecological and socio-cultural environments of these tourism destinations [1]
Results of the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the hypothetical Sociopolitical Control Scale for Tourism (SPCS-T) measurement model fit the data
The concept of citizen participation and empowerment has become a significant area of study in tourism with the growing emphasis on community-based and sustainable tourism practices

Summary

Introduction

Anton ClavéTourism development has long been recognized as a leading economic force and has the potential to play a role in rejuvenating host communities in tourist destinations.At the same time, mass tourism has been associated with unforeseen negative effects such as destruction of the ecological and socio-cultural environments of these tourism destinations [1]. Local citizen participation and empowerment are critical to alleviating the tension between the positive impact of tourism on economic development and its negative impact on tourism destinations. Changes in the sociopolitical and technological landscape have made citizen participation and empowerment a cornerstone of democratic decision-making in a number of contexts [2,3,4,5]. Tourism is one such area, where studies have emphasized the importance of empowering citizens to participate in the development of host communities as tourist destinations [6,7,8]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion