Residents' tourism support behaviour : the role of sustainable tourism attitude

摘要

Sustainability is necessary and a good alternative way to minimizetourism’s negative impacts and its long-term success. Residents have animportant role for sustainable development in a touristic destination. Thepurpose of this paper is to examine the structural relationship betweenresidents’ sustainable tourism attitude and their support behaviour.Although there has been much research to examine residents’ opinionstowards tourism impacts, studies about their sustainable tourism have notbeen profoundly explored in current literature. A total of 403 validquestionnaires were collected to empirically test the measurement andstructural model using a structural equation modelling approach. Thestudy sample consists of residents who live in Didim, Turkey. According tothe results, four of seven dimensions of sustainable tourism attitude relateto residents’ support for sustainable tourism. The results imply thatperceived social costs are the most effective dimension affecting support,whereas maximizing community participation has the lowest impact.Theoretical and managerial contributions are discussed.