Which Construct is Better at Explaining Residents' Involvement in Tourism; Emotional Solidarity or Empowerment?

Keywords

emotional closeness; EQS; Orlando; residents' empowerment; structural equation modelling; sympathetic understanding; Welcoming nature

Abstract

Though residents' involvement is extremely important to foster sustainable tourism, explanations as to why locals become involved are rather scant. This research explores the role that emotional solidarity and empowerment play in explaining residents' involvement in planning for tourism. We collected a sample of 415 residents residing in three counties highly impacted from tourism in Central Florida – Orange, Osceola, and Seminole. Using structural equation modelling, we found that constructs tested in the model, including welcoming nature, sympathetic understanding, social empowerment, and political empowerment, explained 54% of the variance in residents' involvement in tourism planning. Furthermore, two relationships including the effect of resident emotional closeness on their involvement in tourism planning and the effect of resident psychological empowerment on their involvement in tourism planning were not significant. Interestingly, standardized regression coefficients were stronger for the two social and political empowerment factors in explaining resident involvement in tourism planning than for welcoming nature and sympathetic understanding factors. Our results thus contribute to empirically-rigorous, holistic modelling of residents' attitudes.

Publication Date

12-2021

Original Citation

Aleshinloye, K. D., Woosnam, K. M., Erul, E., Suess, C., Kong, I., & Boley, B. B. (2021). Which construct is better at explaining residents’ involvement in tourism; emotional solidarity or empowerment? Current Issues in Tourism, 24(23), 3372–3386. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.1881051

Document Type

Paper

Language

English

Source Title

Current Issues in Tourism

Volume

24

Issue

23

College

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Location

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

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