Catalyst or Barrier? The Influence of Place Attachment on Perceived Community Resilience in Tourism Destinations

Yongrui Guo, Jie Zhang, Yuling Zhang and Chunhui Zheng
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Yongrui Guo: School of History Culture and Tourism, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China
Jie Zhang: Department of Land Resources and Tourism Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Yuling Zhang: Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangzhou 510070, China
Chunhui Zheng: School of Tourism, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: The concept of resilience has recently received a substantial amount of attention in sustainable tourism research. Nevertheless, empirical studies on the factors that may influence the perceived resilience of community residents in tourism destinations remain lacking. A thorough analysis is needed to examine place attachment as a catalyst of or a barrier to community resilience in tourism destinations. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the influence of place attachment on perceived resilience based on data derived from 655 residents in two earthquake-affected tourism communities in Sichuan Province, China. The empirical results indicate that place identity and place dependence have a positive influence on the perceived resilience of community residents in tourism destinations. The equality test for the structural model demonstrates that the influence of place attachment on perceived community resilience is invariant across native residents and lifestyle tourism immigrants. Residents who develop strong place attachment to their communities exhibit greater resilience and adaptive capacity.

Keywords: community resilience; place attachment; place identity; sustainable tourism; tourism crisis; natural disasters; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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