Personal factors that influence residents’ preferences about community involvement in tourism planning

Abstract

Due to the unfair power distribution during the process of tourism development, community involvement has attracted growing attention among tourism researchers. However, there was lack of research in the literature regarding community involvement from residents’ perspective. The purpose of this research was to investigate the preferences of residents in the Midwestern United States on how they would like to be involved in tourism planning and development, and the personal factors that influenced their preferences. Tosun’s (2006) community involvement typology (i.e. spontaneous and induced participation) was used as the theoretical framework of the study. A mail survey was conducted to collect data from a randomly selected sample of residents living in 11 counties in southeastern Indiana. The study found that residents preferred spontaneous participation to induced participation. In addition, their preference about spontaneous participation was influenced by perceived economic benefits and attitude toward tourism jobs; and preference about induced participation was influenced by environmental sustainability. However, for residents who were knowledgeable about tourism, their preference about spontaneous participation was influenced by attitude toward tourism jobs, environmental sustainability, and evaluation of current community involvement in tourism planning. Finally, residents who preferred spontaneous participation were composed by more males than females, perceived higher level of current community involvement, and had more household income than residents who preferred induced participation. Further research should explore other personal factors that may impact residents’ preferences about community involvement.