The role of tourism impact attitudes, subjective wellbeing, and emotional solidarity in predicting support for tourism

The role of tourism impact attitudes, subjective wellbeing, and emotional solidarity in predicting support for tourism

Research applying social exchange theory (SET) has shown that resident attitudes predict their support for tourism, but studies have challenged the potential for SET to fully explain support. Recent studies have drawn from other theories and concepts to explain support, including emotional solidarity (ES), which suggests that resident feelings about tourists are related to attitudes and support. However, three concerns remain: (a) ES is relatively new in tourism, (b) studies linking ES to attitudes and support rarely consider social context such as human wellbeing conditions, and (c) most tourism studies consider human wellbeing as an antecedent or outcome variable, but not as a moderator. This article addressed these issues using a survey of 1,477 Oregon (USA) residents. Attitudes toward positive and negative impacts from tourism explained approximately 53% of the variance in support for tourism. Three subdimensions of ES explained an additional 22% of support. A welcoming nature (one of these subdimensions) was a stronger predictor of support compared to attitudes and the other two subdimensions, which were emotional closeness and sympathetic understanding. Emotional closeness most strongly predicted negative attitudes, whereas sympathetic understanding most strongly predicted positive attitudes. Wellbeing did not moderate any relationships. Implications of these findings are discussed.