Impact of Residents’ Welcoming Nature, Emotional Closeness, and Sympathetic Understanding towards Tourists and Tourism Development

In many countries especially Malaysia, tourism has become a key factor in economic development and the industry relies heavily on the feedback from local residents. It is essential to observe and examine the perceptions of residents towards tourists and tourism development for better planning to achieve successful and sustainable tourism development. Therefore, this research measured the relationship between residents‟ welcoming nature, emotional closeness, and sympathetic understanding with tourists and their attitude towards supporting tourism development. To test the proposed research model, we collected data through a questionnaire survey from 333 residents in rural areas in Malaysia. We used the structural equation modelling technique to evaluate the research model, and the results revealed that residents‟ willingness (welcoming nature) to accept tourists is the strongest factor affecting residents‟ attitudes to support tourism development. However there was no significant relationship between residents‟ emotional closeness and their sympathetic understanding towards tourists with their attitude and support towards tourism development. Welcoming nature, emotional closeness and sympathetic understanding are able to predict 48% of residents‟ attitudes towards tourism development and 62% of their support towards tourism development.