Community Perceptions and Resident Support for Sustainable Tourism in Uttarakhand Himalayas: The Role of Perceived Benefits, Quality of Life, and Place Attachment

Abstract

This study investigates the attitude of the residents towards sustainable tourism in Uttarakhand, India through understanding the role played by perceived benefits of tourism on resident's support of the tourism sector, mediated by the quality of life and with the effect of place attachment and community participation as the moderator. A quantitative research design was used and the data was gathered from 320 inhabitants of the main tourist destination areas by means of a structured questionnaire. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the data.

The results suggest that the perceived economic benefits (β = 0.218, p < 0.001) and the perceived sociocultural benefits (β = 0.196, p < 0.001) significantly positively affect the resident support for tourism to be sustainable, while the environmental sustainability is not significant (β = 0.068, p > 0.05). The three dimensions of benefit are all significant determinants of perceived quality of life, which in turn has a strong direct impact on resident support (β = 0.354, p < 0.001). Results also indicate that place attachment plays a significant moderating role between quality of life and resident support whereas community participation has no significant moderating effect.

The study makes a contribution to sustainable tourism literature as it incorporates quality of life (QoL) as a mediation mechanism and clarifies the role of emotional attachment in influencing the attitudes of the residents. The results provide useful suggestions for policy makers to facilitate community based and sustainable tourism development in the Himalayan areas.