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This study examined the role that tourists’ emotional solidarity with residents serves in explaining their loyalty to the destination they have visited since the COVID-19 pandemic, between May and ...

Even though empowerment is a frequently mentioned keyword in resident attitude studies, the relationship network of this concept is rather vague. It is critical to understand the factors that influence empowerment, and factors that empowerment influences in return. Therefore, the current study modeled residents’ data from the top tourism destination in the United States—Orlando, Florida. Data from 415 residents were analyzed using partial least squares–structural equation modeling on SmartPLS to test the effects of residents’ involvement and economic benefits from tourism on their psychological, social and political empowerment, and thus the quality of life, and ultimately, place attachment. Findings revealed that psychological empowerment is the most significant dimension of resident empowerment influencing both place dependence and place identity, suggesting that residents hold special values for their place. Managerial and theoretical implications, along with limitations (in light of the project occurring pre-COVID-19) and future research opportunities are discussed. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Building on common identity theory and intergroup contact theory, this study sought to further understanding of people–place relationships by developing a holistic theoretical model to scrutinize place attachment as an antecedent of social distance, mediated by emotional solidarity and moderated by frequency of contact between tourists and residents. Visitor data analyzed with SEM revealed that place dependence is a significant predictor of social distance given it affects affinity positively and avoidance negatively, both of which are mediated by the three dimensions of emotional solidarity. Furthermore, the mediated relationships (via emotional solidarity) between place attachment and social distance vary by level of visitors’ frequency of interaction with residents. This study expands current theorization by examining the merits of emotional solidarity as an affective link in a tourist cognitive-behavioral model. From a practical standpoint, DMOs need to understand these construct linkages and include residents in their marketing strategies to increase repeat visitation.

Despite the fact that emotional solidarity, social distance, and contact theory have been widely used to explain resident tourist interaction, these three concepts were never considered in tandem in investigating the intergroup attitude within a domestic tourism setting. To understand what type of interaction improves emotional solidarity and reduces social distance, and how emotional solidarity affects social distance, this study sought to measure the factors explaining emotional solidarity and social distance by focusing on the frequency and the nature of interaction in domestic tourism. Study hypotheses proposed that frequency of interaction and different types of activities that residents engage in with visitors explain both emotional solidarity and social distance, and emotional solidarity in return explains social distance. All hypotheses were partially supported with the findings, confirming the validity of the contact theory in a domestic tourism setting and underscoring the importance of interaction in residents' attitudes toward tourists.

This study introduces self-perception theory as a guiding framework in explaining residents' attitudes from an introspective approach involving residents' own degree of travel. To date, measures explaining such attitudes have primarily come in the form of sociodemographic, socioeconomic, spatial, personal benefit/dependence, etc. variables. Results reveal that travel use history (TUH) is a useful predictor of residents' attitudes about tourism development. Residents who were infrequent travelers indicated less support for tourism than those who were intermediate or frequent travelers. For intermediate travelers, residents who had traveled internationally over the past two years had stronger support than those who had not for selected items within both attitude factors: support for tourism development and tourism contributions to the community. Findings provide support for the continued use of self-perception theory as a framework to consider in explaining residents' attitudes involving tourism and corresponding development.

Despite place attachment's prominence within the environmental psychology literature, the scales and items used to measure place attachment vary significantly, hindering the ability of researchers to rally behind a standard measure. These types of discrepancies hamper the ability of researchers to directly compare findings across communities and conduct metanalyses on the antecedents and outcomes of place attachment. Furthermore, scales consisting of more than three items may unnecessarily burden respondents, thus impeding opportunities to add new constructs to surveys so that the precursors and outcomes of place attachment can be better understood. With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to present and test the cross-cultural reliability and validity of an Abbreviated Place Attachment Scale (APAS) (i.e., three items for place identity and three items for place dependence) across seven samples spanning five data collections and four countries (United States, Cape Verde, Nigeria and Poland) involving residents and visitors. Confirmatory factor analysis reveals that the abbreviated scales perform just as well as their extended parents, and the multi-group confirmatory factor analysis reveals full measurement invariance demonstrating that the APAS is equivalent across cultures. Based on these results, the APAS should be given full attention by place attachment researchers seeking to expand the literature on the understanding of how people connect to places and the implications that these connections have on other important constructs such as quality of life, support for tourism, and place-based conservation efforts or individual environmental behaviors.

As the body of work concerning emotional solidarity between residents and tourists continues to grow within the tourism literature, little focus has been placed on how the setting factors into such relationships. Using the Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove (a UNESCO World Heritage Site in southwestern Nigeria) as a study site, this research examines the role visitors’ attachment to the place plays in explaining their perceived solidarity with area residents. From confirmatory factor analysis, a measurement model was established, which revealed strong psychometric properties for the two place attachment factors (i.e., place identity and place dependence) and the three emotional solidarity factors (i.e., feeling welcomed, emotional closeness, and sympathetic understanding). Structural equation modeling demonstrated that each of the place attachment factors explained a high degree of variance (e.g., R2 ranging between 45% and 54%) in visitors’ emotional solidarity with residents. Implications and future research opportunities are offered within the close of the article.

While the work on place attachment is extensive, it neglects to focus on residents' and tourists' perspectives of the construct concurrently. Additionally, the role that social factors play in forging attachment to place is lacking within the tourism literature. This work focuses on whether residents' (n = 469) and tourists' (n = 461) degree of place attachment at the Osun Oshogbo Cultural Festival (Nigeria) were significantly different. Examining the psychometric properties of the place attachment scale in an international context was a second aim. The final purpose of this work was to assess whether social factors (i.e., frequency of interaction and emotional closeness) between residents and tourists could explain the resulting CFA place attachment factors. MANOVA results revealed tourists demonstrated a significantly higher degree of attachment. Each social determinant predicted the attachment factors for both samples, with the two independent variables explaining higher degrees of variance among residents.

Destinations that remain proactive in planning for tourism development are best served by examining the relationship that exists between residents of and tourists to the area. Considering the Osun Osogbo Sacred Grove and the annual Osun Osogbo Festival (both in honor of the Fertility Goddess, Osun) in Osogbo, Nigeria, this study examines the extant relationship of destination residents and tourists in the Global South through the use of the Emotional Solidarity Scale (ESS). Results revealed strong psychometric properties and consistent factor structure of the ESS, while demonstrating usability of the measure in a context outside of the USA. Residents and tourists reported significantly different levels of emotional solidarity on two of the three ESS factors (e.g. emotional closeness and sympathetic understanding), where, in each instance, tourists reported a significantly higher degree of solidarity with residents than did residents with tourists. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Considering the theory of place attachment, we examine the relationship between residential mobility preference and socio-demographic characteristics, social ties, and environmental perceptions. Based on the application of this western theory to a different national and community-level context, social and economic factors that contribute to such mobility preference are considered. Categorical and multilevel models are employed using cross-sectional census and survey-based data collected from residents in seven South Korean cities. Economic condition, degree of education, transportation elements, social ties, environmental perception, and place-based characteristics were found to contribute to residential mobility preference.

Festivals provide some of the best unscripted encounters between residents and visitors in a destination. Within this article, the theoretical framework of emotional solidarity is applied and expanded in an effort to explain the complex relationship that exists between community residents of and festival visitors to Caldwell, Texas. Results confirm the factor structure of the emotional solidarity scale (ESS), exhibiting sound psychometric properties in the way of numerous reliability and validity measures. Length of residence and number of years attending the festival were considered in explaining the variance in the three factors (i.e., welcoming nature, emotional closeness, and sympathetic understanding) of the ESS. Three of the six regression models were significant. Implications, limitations, and future research opportunities are discussed.

In the context of resident and tourist relationships in a destination, perspectives of the former are rarely considered. This is likely a function of the continued attention paid to studies focusing on the former in addressing sociocultural impacts of tourism. This work examines the relationship as perceived by tourists, utilizing the theoretical framework of emotional solidarity. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the factor structure of the four constructs (i.e., shared beliefs, shared behavior, interaction, and emotional solidarity) within Durkheim’s model. This works shows continued support for the framework with each of the antecedent constructs significantly predicting emotional solidarity, explaining approximately 55% of the variance in the construct. Implications and limitations of the work along with future research opportunities are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a model, which investigated emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion among employees in frontline service jobs. Data were gathered via self-administered questionnaires from a sample of frontline hotel employees in Nigeria, which is one of the neglected developing sub-Saharan countries in the African continent. The results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated a number of significant direct and partial mediating effects and provided support for the majority of the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, emotional dissonance partially mediated the relationships of negative affectivity and intrinsic motivation with emotional exhaustion. The results also revealed that emotional exhaustion partially mediated the effect of emotional dissonance on turnover intentions. Unexpectedly, emotional dissonance was found to be positively related to job performance. Implications for frontline employees and their managers and directions for future research are discussed.