Perceived level of tourism development, community attachment, tourism impacts and quality of life on support for sustainable tourism development

Abstract

Studies showed that sustainability of tourism development largely depends on the acceptability of tourists and tourism-related programs, activities by local communities and their ultimate support towards this industry. Thus, understanding the factors of such support is essential for the tourism policy makers and planners. There are limited studies that applied theories to understand local residents’ support for sustainable tourism development. Drawing from current literature, the purpose of this study was to develop a model, having base in the social exchange theory (SET) in combination with the bottom-up spillover theory. The theoretical model discusses the relationships among different constructs including perceived level of tourism development, community attachment, perceived economic, sociocultural and environmental impacts of tourism, material and non-material life domains, overall quality of life, and support for sustainable tourism development. This study conducted a self-administered survey and structural equation modelling (SEM) approach, using a sample of 542 local residents in six different districts of Langkawi Island, Malaysia. The results indicated that community attachment and perceived level of tourism development influence the residents’ perceived environmental, sociocultural, and economic impacts of tourism. Perceived economic impacts of tourism significantly influenced material and non-material life domains. Also, there is a positive relationship between perceived sociocultural impacts of tourism and non-material life domain; however, this construct did not have a significant relationship with the material life domain. The results further showed that there is no relationship between perceived environmental impacts of tourism towards material and non-material life domains. Moreover, residents’ overall quality of life had a significant influence on support for sustainable tourism development. This study further tested a sequential mediation effect of material, non-material and overall quality of life between perceived environmental, economic and sociocultural impacts of tourism and support for sustainable tourism development. The results indicated that both material and non-material life domains and overall quality of life were partially mediated the relationship between perceived economic impacts and support for sustainable tourism development. Similarly, the paths of material and non-material life and overall quality of life partially mediated the relationship between sociocultural impacts of tourism and support for sustainable tourism development. However, material and non-material life and overall quality of life did not mediate the relationship between perceived environmental impacts and support for sustainable tourism development. From the theoretical perspective, this study contributes to the formation of a new construct (quality of life) which is deemed useful for understanding the way on how residents support sustainable tourism development. The findings of this study can assist local authorities, tourism planners and developers of Langkawi Islands, in particular LADA, in the implementation of sustainable tourism development plans that will be supported by the majority of the local community based on the residents’ perceived tourism impacts as the significant determinants of support for sustainable tourism development.