Residents' support for tourism development at a UNESCO world heritage site in Chengde, Hebei Province, China

Residents' attitudes have a strong influence on the success or failure of tourism at the destination. Tourism development produces not only positive benefits but also negative impacts to the residents. Their attitudes can influence their level of support for tourism development in a country. If a balance between positive benefits and impacts is not achieved, residents may perpetuate negative attitudes towards future tourism development at the destination and display their resentment to tourists. This study examines the influence of community attachment towards the residents' perceptions of tourism impacts and how these perceptions influence their support for future tourism development at Chengde, a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization listed World Heritage Site in Hebei Province China. This study also investigates whether trust in the local government moderates the relationship between the residents' perceptions of tourism impacts and their support for future tourism development. The targeted population for this study were the residents living in 14 villages within the vicinity of Chengde Mountain Resort. A total of l,200 self· administrated questionnaires were distributed to the head of households in all 14 villages of Chengde. Of the 1,044 returned questionnaires, 1,004 responses were eligible for subsequent analysis. This study applies the Social Exchange Theory (SET) as its research framework and had proposed four main hypotheses with ten sub-hypotheses. The hypotheses were tested using inferential methods including correlation analysis, multiple regression and hierarchical regressions analysis. Findings of this study revealed that, Chengde's residents' community attachment has significant relationship with perceived positive impacts of tourism. Residents who perceived positive impacts of tourism will support for future additional tourism development, however those who perceived negative tourism impacts will support for restricted tourism development. Trust in government moderates the relationship between perceived tourism impacts and residents support for tourism development. This study suggests that residents' perceptions of tourism impacts must be frequently monitored. The support by the residents is necessary to assist the tourism authorities to execute appropriate tourism planning and strategies to improve the quality of life of their residents and achieve a sustainable tourism development in Chengde.