Exploring the impact of residents’ emotional solidarity on attitude and support for tourism development in the context of COVID-19

Abstract

Although research on emotional solidarity has received attention in the tourism field in recent years, little research on the subject has been conducted in the context of a pandemic. Thus, this study investigated the relationships among Jeju residents’ emotional solidarity toward visitors, attitude, and their support for tourism development under the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve this objective, an online survey was conducted to Jeju residents by KakaoTalk using snowball sampling method from May 28 to June 8, 2020, during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 634 samples were collected, and then the collected data were analyzed using SPSS 24.0 and SmartPLS 3.0. The findings of this study revealed that all three factors of Jeju residents’ emotional solidarity toward visitors significantly affected their attitude toward tourism development. The attitude of local people also had a positive direct prediction effect on their support for Jeju tourism development, and all emotional solidarity dimensions demonstrated positive indirect effects on residents’ support via attitude. This study provided some theoretical implications for academic and practical recommendations for the Jeju government authority and tourism practitioners to create a safe tourism environment in the context of COVID-19 and to promote the sustainable development of the Jeju tourism industry. Some suggestions were also provided for future research on emotional solidarity, as well.