Structural Relations of Positive Tourism Impacts on Residents Attitude and Support for Tourism Development in Jeju

Purpose: This study is to draw policy implications for tourism administration and developers to receive support and cooperation of residents for sustainable tourism development. The researchers focused on the positive tourism impacts and their structural relations in order to define more influential factors. Research design, data, and methodology: The Path Analysis conducted in this study measures the path coefficient, specific indirect effect as well as total effect of latent variables in both initial and modified models using PLS-SEM. The researchers analyzed a total number of 627 valid samples out of 650 in eight hot spots of Jeju Island in October 2020. The survey items were selected from references based on the Social Exchange Theory in seven-level Likert scale consisting economic, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts perceived by residents. Results: The assessment results of the initial model did not provide the fundamental explanation of socio-cultural impacts of tourism while the new model demonstrated socio-cultural impacts influenced both economic (t values=16.054, R²=0.355, p<0.001) and environmental impacts (t values = 16.3034, R² = 0.326, p<0.001) significantly. Conclusions: The researchers have now found that positive impacts of social and cultural domains in Jeju Island among residents may be a more fundamental and influential than others.