Abstract
An in-depth discussion of place attachment in the relationship between residents’ perceived tourism impacts and their support for tourism is still lacking. The predictor of tourism involvement in this relationship has also been underestimated and little attention has been paid to industrial heritage tourism in relation to residents’ attitudes toward tourism development. To fill this gap, we extend upon the existing studies of residents’ attitudes toward tourism with place attachment (both place identity and place dependence) and tourism involvement based on social exchange theory, attitude theory, and the theory of planned behavior. A self-administered survey was completed by 336 residents of Huangshi, a city undergoing a transition to industrial heritage tourism in China. The findings show that residents’ support for tourism is the result of a complete behavior generation process. This has gradually formed through tourism involvement, cognition, affection, and behavior intention, emphasizing the importance of participation and affective attitude in determining residents’ attitudes toward tourism. To maintain the sustainable development of industrial heritage tourism in the economic transition from an old industrial region to new sectors, local authorities should attach more importance to strengthening residents’ native emotional bonds and concentrate on how to encourage local residents to participate in tourism activities.
Highlights
In the context of tourism, several studies have stressed that in tourist destinations, residents have a deeper perception and more profound understanding of urban changes than tourists, because they live, work and entertain in the destination every day [1]
We further explored whether place attachment can be switched to a non-prepositive construct that guides the influence of attitude on behavior
We explored a conceptual and integrative framework of residents’ support for tourism development based on social exchange theory (SET) following the guidelines of attitude theory
Summary
In the context of tourism, several studies have stressed that in tourist destinations, residents have a deeper perception and more profound understanding of urban changes than tourists, because they live, work and entertain in the destination every day [1]. Their support is considered a sign of success in sustainable tourism development [2]. With regard to residents’ sophisticated support behavior, social exchange theory (SET) has been widely used to shape how residents form supportive attitudes through perceived impacts (positive/negative or benefits/costs) on various tourism developments [3,4,5,6,7]. Many scholars have explored predictors of residents’ perceptions of and support behavior (exchange procedure) toward sustainable tourism development, such as place identity [9]; place image and place attachment [1,10,11,12]; community attachment, community concern, and eco-centric attitude [13,14,15]; trust [2,16]; satisfaction and community commitment [17]; event attachment [18]; sense of place [19]; and empowerment [20]
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