Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254

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Tourism Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman

The effect of residents’ personality, emotional solidarity, and

community commitment on support for tourism development
Sedigheh Moghavvemi a, *, Kyle M. Woosnam b, Tanuosha Paramanathan a,
Ghazali Musa a, Amran Hamzah c
a
Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
b
University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
c
University Technology Malaysia, Malaysia

h i g h l i g h t s

To test residents' personality, emotional solidarity, and support tourism development.

Feelings toward tourists and tourism development are different among males and females.

High agreeableness and extraversion personalities are supportive towards tourism development.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Residents' personality and their perspectives about community and those visiting can play an important
Received 13 November 2016 role in forming overall support for tourism development. This study examined how residents' person-
Received in revised form ality, emotional solidarity, and community commitment impact perceptions of tourism, which ultimately
20 June 2017
explain support for tourism development. To test the theoretical framework, survey data were collected
Accepted 20 June 2017
Available online 29 June 2017
from 340 residents living in two Malaysian tourism destinations. Structural equation modelling was
utilized to assess the proposed model. Results revealed that sympathetic understanding and welcoming
nature were the strongest factors influencing residents' attitudes towards tourism development while
Keywords:
Personality
the effect was different among males and females with differing personality traits. Further analysis
Tourism development showed that the effect of welcoming nature and emotional closeness on residents’ attitude towards
Malaysia tourism development was different among residents with personalities of high agreeableness and ex-
Structural equation modelling traversion, while openness to experience, conscientiousness, and neuroticism did not have a significant
Community commitment effect on these relationships.
Resident attitudes © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Support

1. Introduction tourism to the country, the Malaysian government has proactively

The tourism industry within Malaysia is growing at a rapid pace,
contributing to increased foreign exchange and the availability of
job opportunities especially within rural areas (Ibrahim, 2010). As
announced by the federal government, the gross value added of
tourism industries (GVATI) to the GDP increased 13.7% from 2013 to
2014 with 169.3 million visitors (domestic and international) in
2014 (https://www.statistics.gov.my). Realizing the value of
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sedigheh@um.edu.my (S. Moghavvemi), woosnam@tamu.edu
(K.M. Woosnam), tanuosha@siswa.um.edu.my (T. Paramanathan), ghazalimz@um.
edu.my (G. Musa), tprg_fab@yahoo.com (A. Hamzah).
taken steps to promote the industry by forming the Malaysian
Tourism Policy to increase GNP and enhance economic value. Such
policy was initiated to formally promote ecotourism as well as
other kinds of tourism within the country (Amran, Wahid, Siti-
Nabiha, & Abustan, 2008; Moghavvemi et al., 2017). These efforts
have contributed to growing interest in Malaysia (and its various
rural communities) as a tourist destination. (see Fig. 1)
In proactive planning efforts, numerous studies have been un-
dertaken in Malaysia to examine the effects (i.e., costs and benefits)
of tourism development on local communities. Kayat (2002) found
this on Langkawi Island where individuals acknowledged that
tourism created opportunities to overcome economic hardships
despite eroding traditional Muslim values and cultural lifestyles.
The author conceded that such dependency influenced residents’

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.06.021
0261-5177/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 S. Moghavvemi et al. / Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254
Fig. 1. Research model.
perceptions of tourism. Ismail and Turner (2008) argued that even
though residents of Perhentian Island (another Malaysian desti-
nation) are aware of the positive contributions of tourism, they are
mindful of those that are negative (i.e., rising costs of goods and
services, increasing land and housing values, and degrading natural
resources). Negative social consequences of tourism have also been
highlighted by Nejati, Mohamed, and Omar (2014), indicating res-
idents are abusing drugs and alcohol and engaging in illegal sexual
activities as a result of tourism.
Ismail and Turner (2008) remind us that despite these negative
consequences, the industry has been instrumental in providing
incentives for natural resource conservation as well as preservation
of historical buildings and heritage sites on the Malaysian islands.
Hazmah and Mohamed (2015) point out that on Mabul Island,
residents are aware of and thankful for the low-entry requirements
for becoming boatmen, dive operators, front-desk and house-
keeping staff not to mention opportunities for social interaction
with visitors. Hasani, Moghavvemi, and Hamzah (2016) that
demonstrated Malaysian residents can be quite welcoming of
tourists not only for the economic benefits (i.e., increased
employment opportunities and improved standards of living) but
also opportunities for cross-cultural exchange (Hasani et al., 2016),
whereby residents are afforded numerous opportunities to interact
with visitors and engage in transformative learning.
In light of the extensive work focusing on residents' perceptions
of tourism development in general and Malaysia, specifically,
Woosnam (2011) highlighted the fact that many of such studies
have considered how such individuals perceived the industry
overall and not on their personal relationships with tourists.
Furthermore, most variables used in such studies are based on
demographic, residential, spatial, and economic measures
(Almeida-García, Pelaez-Fernandez, Balbuena-Vazquez, & Macias,
2016; Vargas-Sa 
nchez, De losAngeles Plaza-Mejía, & Porras-Bueno,
2009). Few studies have considered how relational aspects be-
tween residents and tourists can serve to explain locals' perspec-
tives of the industry overall (Woosnam, Norman, & Ying, 2009). It
was the work of Woosnam (2012) that demonstrated how resi-
dents' emotional solidarity with destination visitors can explain
attitudes regarding tourism development when he and colleagues
developed the emotional solidarity model. Of course the
243
relationship between residents and tourists (coupled with inter-
action, shared beliefs, and shared behaviour) may be affected by
other important factors such as individuals' personality. It is
important to study residents' personality because individual dif-
ferences may trigger different types of emotions and responses
when a particular situation stimulates feelings (Triandis & Suh,
2002). Specifically, individuals' personality can precipitate
human's sensitivity to positive and negative effects and this may
influence their reactions and decisions in particular situations
(Park, Lee, Sohn, Eom, & Sohn, 2014). For example, extroverts have
been shown to exhibit lower physiological responses to pain and
sadness and this connection is linked to parasympathetic reactivity
(Park et al., 2014). Given this, it is presumed that residents' pos-
sessing diverse personality traits would respond differently when
encountering tourists and evaluating tourism development. Even
though numerous works exist with the tourism literature con-
cerning personality, no studies have considered the construct's
potential to explain emotional solidarity and ultimately attitudes
about tourism and support for tourism development. The only
study that is tangentially related focused on how personality helps
to explain changes in emotions among individuals while on vaca-
tion (Lin, Kerstetter, Nawijn, & Mitas, 2014).
Gender also has the ability to explain residents' attitudes con-
cerning tourism and its accompanying development (see Huh &
Vogt, 2008; Mason & Cheyne, 2000; Nunkoo & Gursoy, 2012;
and; Nunkoo, Gursoy, & Juwaheer, 2010). However, gender has
never been considered a moderator between the constructs of
emotional solidarity (i.e., welcoming nature, emotional closeness,
and sympathetic understanding) and support for tourism devel-
opment. Mason and Cheyne (2000) did purport however, that
residents’ gender may contribute to feelings toward tourists and
overarching perceptions about tourism development.
Considering these gaps, the main purpose of this research is to
examine how constructs of emotional solidarity, community
commitment, and personality influence residents' attitudes toward
supporting tourism development among rural Malaysian residents.
Such work builds on the established model of emotional solidarity
developed by Woosnam (2012). Furthermore, our aim is also to
observe the moderating effect of residents’ gender and personality
on the relationship between emotional solidarity and attitudes
244 S. Moghavvemi et al. / Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254
toward supporting tourism development. Ultimately, it is proposed
that male and female residents with particular personality traits
may react differently towards the development of the tourism in-
dustry within two popular Malaysian destinations.
Examining the effects of personality and gender on emotional
solidarity will not only help to further develop the framework
established by Woosnam and Norman (2010) but also aid in
contributing to the explanation of varying degrees of attitudes
about tourism (considering emotional solidarity as a key determi-
nant). In so doing, the potential exists for such attitudes to signif-
icantly explain overall support for tourism development. While
Woosnam (2012) initially considered the role emotional solidarity
serves in contributing to attitudes about tourism, he neglected to
carry the relationship further in examining degrees of support for
the industry. Given the tourism industry is among the fastest
growing business sectors throughout Malaysia, attention needs to
be given to understand residents' perspectives about the industry.
Furthermore, to gain a most comprehensive view of residents’ at-
titudes toward and support for tourism and its development, per-
sonality, gender, commitment to community and emotional
solidarity need to be considered. Such results would go far in
assisting local DMOs to proactively plan for sustainable tourism.
2. Literature review and hypothesis development
Numerous theories have been put forth characterizing the
relationship between community residents and destination tour-
ists. Arguably, the most utilized framework is the social exchange
theory (Ward & Berno, 2011), having been most recently employed
in works by Nunkoo and Gursoy (2012) and Nunkoo and
Ramkissoon (2012). Other notable theories include the social dis-
tance theory (Tasci, 2009), social representations theory (Moscardo,
2011), integrative theory of cross-cultural adaptation (Lee &
Woosnam, 2010), intimacy theory (Trauer & Ryan, 2005), and the
contact-hypothesis theory (Tomljenovi c, 2010).
The most recent theory to consider resident-tourist relation-
ships is emotional solidarity, as initially developed by Woosnam
and Norman (2010) and tested by Woosnam (2011). Born out of
the workings of Durkheim (1995[1915]), the theory posits that
shared beliefs, shared behaviours, and interaction between in-
dividuals serves to forge a degree of solidarity. This emotional
solidarity is considered the degree of closeness between in-
dividuals, whereby a sentiment of ‘we together’ is championed over
the notion of a ‘self-versus-other’ dichotomy that is so prevalent
within the tourism literature (Woosnam et al., 2009). While
emotional solidarity has been considered a precursor to residents'
attitudes of both positive and negative forms of tourism impacts
(Woosnam, 2012) as well as residents' attitudes about tourism
development (Hasani et al., 2016), the construct has not been
considered an antecedent of residents' level of support for tourism
development. In this paper we examine the effect of emotional
solidarity factors (i.e., welcoming nature, emotional closeness, and
sympathetic understanding), resident's personality and commu-
nity commitments on residents' attitudes and support for tourism
development. In the following section we discuss the proposed
model and hypotheses along with support for relationships in the
framework.
2.1. Residents’ attitudes about tourism development
While much research has been undertaken on attitudes in the
context of travel and tourism, it is important to initially define what
is meant by the term, “attitudes.” Eagly and Chaiken (1993), in their
seminal work on the psychology of attitudes, refers to attitudes as,
“a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a
particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour” (p. 1). As
indicated in the expectancy value model (1983) individual attitude
towards an entity is determined by the subjective values or eval-
uations of the attributes associated with the entity and the strength
of the associations. Fazio and Towles-Schwen (1999) classified
attitude behaviour process in two classes, namely deliberate and
spontaneous processing. Spontaneous attitude refers to the im-
mediate evaluation of an object or issue while deliberate attitude
forms after individuals consider the benefit and drawbacks of the
object and issue more consciously and systematically (Fazio &
Towles-Schwen, 1999, pp. 97e116). Kotler, Bowen, and Makens
(2010) indicated that attitudes are related to individuals' evalua-
tion of, feelings for and tendencies toward an object or idea.
Tourism researchers have argued that factors such as distance be-
tween residents' home and tourist destination (Andereck,
Valentine, Knopf, & Vogt, 2005), amount of knowledge residents
gather about tourism (Andereck et al., 2005), and the extent of
contact residents have with tourists (Brida, Osti, & Faccioli, 2011)
can impact and influence residents' attitudes toward tourism
development. Besculides, Lee, and McCormick (2002) revealed that
residents’ level of community attachment has the capability to
predict attitudes about tourism development due to the fact that
residents who are strongly committed to their community are more
involved and exposed to tourism impacts.
McGehee and Andereck (2004) claimed that residents who are
not employed in the tourism industry may possess negative atti-
tudes about tourism development because they are not as well
versed about tourism benefits, and as such perceive tourism
development as detrimental to the environment and conceive
negative attitudes towards enhancement in the tourism industry.
According to Hung, Sirakaya-Turk, and Ingram (2011), it is essential
to take into consideration residents' attitudes in efforts to foster
more sustainable tourism planning and development. Of course,
residents are likely to understand the benefits that come with
tourism (e.g., job creation, better incomes, improvement of existing
facilities and infrastructure and opportunities to meet new and
interesting people) just as much as the costs (e.g., crowding,
increased costs, higher taxes, etc.) Such positive and negative at-
titudes have been significantly linked to residents’ level of support
for tourism development in numerous studies (Lepp, 2006; La tkova

& Vogt, 2012; Perdue, Long, & Allen, 1990).
2.2. Residents’ support towards tourism development
Siu, Lee, and Leung (2013) noted that when local residents have
positive attitudes towards tourism as a whole, they are more in-
clined to look upon tourists favourably and subsequently support
tourism development. This support is strengthened by experi-
encing personal benefits that improve standards of living. Com-
munity benefits have also been found to contribute to residential
support for future tourism development (Sharma & Gursoy, 2015).
Vargas-Sa nchez et al. (2009) found such support was revealed
based on proposed employment opportunities for residents and
overall level of potential for the municipality.
Just as some residents see immediate benefits of tourism, others
are more prone to highlight negative impacts or consequences from
the industry (Andereck et al., 2005). When residents experience
negative consequences such as crowding, noise pollution,
vandalism, and even negative environmental impacts, they will be
more likely to oppose tourism development (Chen & Chen, 2010).
Also, when residents perceive more costs than benefits, they are
more likely to have negative perceptions about tourism activities
and therefore demonstrate a lack of support for tourism develop-
ment (Guo, Kim, & Chen, 2014).
Nunkoo and Gursoy (2012) found that residents who possess a
 S. Moghavvemi et al. / Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254
high level (relative to those with a low level) of resource-based
occupational identity may have more negative perceptions about
the tourism industry. This situation could possibly occur because
residents who possess a high level of such an identity may avoid
engaging in tourism activities being mindful of the negative con-
sequences brought on by the industry. Residents’ level of support
for tourism and its development is essential as it could determine
the stability and sustainability of this industry (Gursoy, Chi, & Dyer,
2010). Largely to date, determinants of support for tourism devel-
opment have not considered the role personal connections with
visitors play in forging a positive perspective.
2.3. Welcoming nature
The Emotional Solidarity Scale as developed by Woosnam and
Norman (2010) is comprised of three factors: Welcoming nature,
emotional closeness, and sympathetic understanding. According to
Woosnam (2012), residents who are very welcoming toward
tourists will most likely have personal interests in the industry and
will appreciate benefits derived from tourism development. Resi-
dents who welcome guests to their community are likely to be
proud of their community and value contributions tourists make to
the local economy. Indeed, welcoming nature has been deemed the
strongest factor (relative to emotional closeness and sympathetic
understanding) of emotional solidarity that could predict residents’
support for tourism development (Hasani et al., 2016; Woosnam,
2012).
In terms of personality traits, residents who score high on the
openness to experience trait would most likely also be those
demonstrating high levels of welcoming nature of tourists because
according to Kuo, Cheng, Chiu, and Cho (2015), openness to expe-
rience refers to the receptiveness of an individual to learning and
adapting to change. Therefore, these residents would want to be
open to new ideas and show interest in learning more about
tourists. In contrast, neurotic residents may avoid interacting with
tourists because according to Huang, Gursoy, and Xu (2014),
neurotic individuals tend to possess a higher degree of uncertainty
when making tourism decisions and demonstrate regret following
such decisions. We can presume that neurotic residents may avoid
associating with tourists because they are normally anxious, dis-
tressed, and sensitive to risk when associating with new tourists
(Tanford, Raab, & Kim, 2013).
H1. Residents' level of welcoming nature toward tourists has a
significant effect on their attitudes toward tourism development.
2.4. Emotional closeness
In tourism destinations, residents and tourists are often in the
physical co-presence of one another. In some instances, the physical
space can be transcended and a degree of emotional closeness re-
sults (Woosnam & Norman, 2010). Woosnam (2012) found that
residents who had forged friendships with tourists had realized the
benefits of tourism and indicated a higher level of support for the
industry. Such relationships, of course, develop through interaction
and sharing beliefs and behaviours with one another (Woosnam
et al., 2009). Woosnam and Aleshinloye (2015) argued that
greater frequency of positive interactions would aid in fostering
such closeness among residents and tourists.
Implicit in this line of research is the idea that representatives of
each group want to be receptive to one another. Intimate rural
settings, especially those showcasing festivals and specialized
forms of tourism (i.e., cultural-heritage or ecotourism) lend them-
selves to such environments (Woosnam & Aleshinloye, 2015).
However, the level of residents' emotional closeness with tourists
245
will depend on their self-perception as well as tourists’ travel be-
haviours (Wang & Xu, 2015).
In terms of personality, residents who exhibit high levels of the
agreeableness trait would intentionally seek to be more emotion-
ally close to tourists given they get along well with others and have
a prosocial orientation (Ying & Norman, 2014). Contrary to this,
conscientious residents may not feel obligated to be close with
tourists. This situation could occur because when an individual is
more conscientious, they may not be willing to take the risk of
forging friendships with new tourists (Lee & Tseng, 2015).
H2. Residents' level of emotional closeness with tourists has a
significant effect on their attitudes toward tourism development.
2.5. Sympathetic understanding
As Woosnam et al. (2009) has put forth, sympathetic under-
standing is demonstrated by residents and tourists ‘putting them-
selves in each other's shoes' to see the world through someone
else's eyes. Such a perspective serves to minimize the “Othering” to
which Caton and Santos (2008) have referred. Indeed, some resi-
dents have been very empathetic toward tourists because once
residents interact with tourists extensively (in more rural envi-
ronments and in sustainable tourism endeavours), they will be able
to comprehend that many tourists truly want to learn the local
culture and preserve local ways of life (Besculides et al., 2002). Of
the three emotional solidarity factors, none better explains per-
ceptions of tourism impacts among residents than sympathetic
understanding (Woosnam, 2012). Draper, Woosnam, and Norman
(2011) contends that empathy along with residents' personal
travel allows for greater understanding of such tourism impacts.
Those residents exhibiting high degrees of agreeableness are
likely to be sympathetic toward tourists because they tend to be
helpful, considerate, courteous, friendly, accommodating, avoid
conflict (Ying & Norman, 2014), forgiving, show an eagerness for
communion and are sympathetic towards others (Fayombo, 2010;
Myers, Sen, & Alexandrov, 2010; Rose, Ramalu, Uli, & Kumar,
2010). Tan, Der Foo, and Kwek (2004) mentioned that individuals
who are highly agreeable would have positive perceptions of others
with whom they come into contact.
H3. Residents' level of sympathetic understanding with tourists
has a significant effect on their attitudes toward tourism
development.
2.6. Community commitment
Commitment refers to the desire to maintain a valued rela-
tionship. The term, “community commitment,” as pointed out by
Grzeskowiak, Sirgy, and Widgery (2003), demonstrates that local
residents consider themselves part of the community to which they
are loyal and would never seek to relocate at any cost. Consisting of
both affective and conative dimensions, the construct has been
applied in many fields and disciplines such as community devel-
opment, urban affairs, and political science (Chen, Berman, West, &
Eger , 2013). Community commitment is said to be present when
local residents feel a sense of belonging in their community, psy-
chological attachment toward other community members,
comfortable with exchanging opinions with other community
members, and are fond of engaging and participating in community
activities (Kang, Lee, Lee, & Choi, 2007).
According to Hibbard and Karle (2002), local residents who are
committed to their community would have the capability to
address opportunities, possess solutions for problems and fortify
246 S. Moghavvemi et al. / Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254
community responses. Hence, community commitment is the
community-wide will to act which is rooted in shared awareness of
opportunities, problems, and valuable solutions. According to
Nunkoo and Ramkissoon (2011), it was found that tourist destina-
tions were able to experience much benefit in ascertaining resident
populations' commitment toward the destination and to observe
how their contribution could be considered as part of the revitali-
zation initiatives. In fact, local participation and community
commitment greatly enhances the success of the tourism industry
(Bourke & Luloff, 1996). Liu, Tzeng, and Lee (2012) further
emphasized that many government authorities depend on local
residents to be committed toward their community in order to
achieve sustainable tourism development and reap the benefits
from the industry.
H4. Residents' level of community commitment has a significant
effect on their attitudes toward tourism development.
2.7. Personality
Researchers in psychology and other disciplines have conducted
extensive research to investigate individuals’ personalities and
behaviours. The tourism literature is also fairly well established
with its own research on the matter (see Jani, Jang, & Hwang, 2014;
Kavenska  & Simonov a, 2015; Kuo et al., 2015; Leung & Law, 2010 for
most recent reviews) covering topics of brand personality, desti-
nation personality, personality traits, personality and internet
search behaviour, and personalities of numerous specialized tour-
ists, to name a few.
Walters (1978) described personality as, “The summation of the
characteristics that make the person what he or she is and (that)
distinguish each individual from every other individual”. Allport
(1937, p. 48) defines personality as, “The dynamic organization
within the individual of those psychophysical systems that deter-
mine his/her unique adjustments to his/her environment.” Per-
sonality can be thought of as the distinctive and enduring patterns
of thoughts, emotions, and behaviours that characterize each in-
dividual's adaptation to the situations in a person's life (Jani, 2011).
While numerous measures of personality exist within the litera-
ture, the Big Five (i.e., conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion,
agreeableness, and openness to experience) has been considered
one of the most well-known and utilized within the psychology
literature and within tourism research (Ying & Norman, 2014).
2.7.1. Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness refers to a person who is very detailed,
organized, rule-following, reliable, and responsible (Fayombo,
2010; Goldberg, 1990; Roberts, Chernyshenko, Stark, & Goldberg,
2005; Rose et al., 2010). Tracey, Sturman, and Tews (2007) found
that conscientiousness is a crucial personality trait necessary for
frontline staff success in the tourism industry. Lee and Tseng (2015)
found that among particular recreationists, the more conscientious
an individual is, the less likely they are to take risks. Costa and
McCrae (1992) argue that this is explained by the fact that consci-
entious individuals are overly organized and excessive planners.
2.7.2. Neuroticism
Neuroticism is defined as the negative emotional states expe-
rienced contributing to emotional instability (Myers et al., 2010). As
Yoo and Gretzel found, individuals demonstrating high levels of
neuroticism tend to be unstable, depressed, and anxious. Huang
et al. (2014) claim that neurotic individuals are more concerned
with the risks and negative consequences when purchasing
tourism products as they assemble more product-related infor-
mation. When considering tourists’ information search behaviour,
neurotic tourists tend to conduct thorough searches in efforts to
minimize negative emotions during the planning process (Jani
et al., 2014).
2.7.3. Extraversion
Extraversion refers to the degree to which a person is active,
assertive, and sociable (Fayombo, 2010; Kuo et al., 2015; Myers
et al., 2010; Rose et al., 2010; Ross et al., 2009). Since tourism
products provide opportunities for enhancing one's self-image,
extraverted individuals are more likely to communicate conspicu-
ous elements of themselves to other people in efforts to gain social
recognition (Vogt & Fesenmaier, 1998). Considering the hotel in-
dustry, Kuo et al. (2015) argues that service workers relying on
people skills, who are talkative and are sociable, are likely extra-
verted and will be most productive within the industry. Adventure
recreationists that exhibit high degrees of extraversion will most
often be inclined to take greater risks (Lee & Tseng, 2015).
2.7.4. Agreeableness
According to Kuo et al. (2015), agreeableness refers to a person
who is trusting, cooperative, amicable, kind, and warm. Moreover,
it has been found that individuals who are high in this trait are
likely to overtly seek out information to ensure high performance,
and that they view information gathering as part of the process to
success (Myers et al., 2010). As a matter of fact, agreeableness has
been deemed important in the hotel industry as this attribute helps
maintain good relations with colleagues and customers (Kuo et al.,
2015). Moreover, individuals who possess high levels of agree-
ableness will positively influence the job performance of sales-
people in the tourism sector. Additionally, tourists who are
agreeable tend to be more inclined in pre-trip and on-site tourism
information sources.
2.7.5. Openness to experience
Individuals who possess high levels of openness to experience
tend to be insightful, curious, intelligent, imaginative, and possess
diverse interests (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Fayombo, 2010; Kuo et al.,
2015; Myers et al., 2010; Rose et al., 2010). Tan and Tang (2013)
found these individuals to be intuitive, relying on such percep-
tions and personal experiences to formulate thoughts and in-
tentions. People who are more open to experiences would be more
willing to share their experiences and ideas with others via social
media following their visit (Tan & Tang, 2013). Black, Organ, and
Morton (2010) argues that this demonstrates a proactive behav-
ioural pattern in capturing travel experiences. Ong and Musa (2012)
go further to claim that the openness to experience trait directly
influences attitudes concerning tourism phenomena.
Only direct effects of two personality traits (i.e., agreeableness
and openness to experience) were included within the study given
their ability to explain interpersonal relationships (Fayombo, 2010;
Myers et al., 2010; Rose et al., 2010) and individuals’ willingness to
embrace differences and appreciate new experiences (Black et al.,
2010). Direct effects of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extra-
version were excluded for numerous reasons. De Raad (2000) as-
serts that neurotic individuals not only experience personality
disorders but also are hostile to change. Given conscientiousness is
typically considered in contexts of work, learning, and education
(De Raad, 2000), it did not seem suitable to include. Finally, with
knowledge that extraversion has much to do with high levels of
curiosity and life goals (Costa and McCrae, 1992), direct effects of
the trait were excluded.
H5. Agreeableness has a significant effect on residents' attitudes
toward tourism development.
H6. Openness to experience has a significant effect on residents'
 S. Moghavvemi et al. / Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254
attitudes toward tourism development.
H7. Residents' personality significantly moderates the effect
welcoming nature, emotional closeness, and sympathetic under-
standing each have on the relationship between attitudes about
tourism and support for tourism development.
2.8. Attitudes about tourism and support for tourism development
The theory of reason action (TRATRA) explains the relationship
between attitudes and support (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) and sug-
gests that humans are rational individuals with the ability to pro-
cess information for decision making. TRA explains that an attitude
is a psychological tendency expressed by assessing a specific ‘ob-
ject’ with some degrees of approval or disapproval and that the
behaviour is a function of a person's attitude. Social exchange
theory highlights the effect of social exchange and the costs/ben-
efits of tourism development in areas, purporting that if residents
perceive tourism development to be beneficial then they will
support tourism development (Ap, 1992). Lepp (2007) suggested
that encouraging positive attitudes toward tourism developments
leads to pro-tourism behaviours. Kwon and Vogt (2010) revealed a
positive relationship between residents' attitudes to place mar-
keting and tourism product development. Prayag, Hosany, Nunkoo,
and Alders (2013) found a positive relationship between residents'
overall attitudes and support for Olympic Games.
Prayag et al. (2013) argued that even though many researchers
investigated the antecedents of residents' support for tourism
development, much ambiguity surrounds the relationship between
residents' overall attitudes and support. Two problems that exist
are the measurement issue and the interchangeable use of the
terms attitude and support which hampers clear understanding of
the nature of this relationship. Some researchers like Ko and
Stewart (2002) did not make a distinction between overall atti-
tude and support while Snaith and Haley (1999) measured support
for tourism development using the item such as ‘willingness to pay
a local tax.’ Support has also been measured using overall attitude
items (e.g., Zhou & Ap, 2009). Considering the above studies and
argument, we used the attitude measurement from TRA and
conceptualized it in the context of tourism. In this study, the object
is ‘tourism development’ and the resultant behaviour is ‘support for
tourism development’. Therefore, we hypothesis that:
H8. Residents' attitudes toward tourism development has a sig-
nificant effect on their support for tourism development.
2.9. Moderating effect of gender
Previous research found that gender can influence residents’
attitudes toward tourism development (Huh & Vogt, 2008; Nunkoo
et al., 2010). Nunkoo et al. (2010) found that females were more
concerned about the negative impacts brought on by the tourism
industry and its accompanying development. An explanation for
this is that women are more prone to care about families, com-
munity, society in general, and the environment (Nunkoo et al.,
2010). Tourism has the potential to disrupt each of these. This
was evidenced by results from Mason and Cheyne (2000) that
found women opposed building bars and cafes given the fear that
such businesses may contribute to greater drunk-driving, traffic
congestion, and noise and crime. Huh and Vogt (2008) found that
among men, those who experienced greater economic benefits
from tourism, had the most positive attitudes concerning the
industry.
Nunkoo and Gursoy (2012) found men and women differed
247
significantly on perceptions of tourism impacts overall, tourism
quality impacts, and support for tourism development. The work
revealed a direct positive relationship between residents' level of
femininity and attitudes concerning negative impacts, which led to
a direct negative relationship between residents’ level of femininity
and their support for tourism development. Stets and Biga (2003)
found something similar whereby residents displaying more
feminine attributes demonstrated greater concern over environ-
mental conditions and were more prone to engage in pro-
environmental behaviours. Therefore, if tourism development
brings any harm to the environment, it would be very likely that
residents who possess feminine traits would oppose tourism
enhancement.
H9a. The effect of welcoming nature on attitudes toward tourism
development is significantly different among males and females.
H9b. The effect of emotional closeness on attitudes toward
tourism development is significantly different among males and
females.
H9c. The effect of sympathetic understanding on attitudes toward
tourism development is significantly different among males and
females.
3. Method
3.1. Sampling and data collection
Residents living in two Malaysian tourism destinations - Pahang
and Sabah-comprised the population for this study. Utilizing a
convenience sampling strategy, an on-site self-administered
questionnaire was distributed to 1000 residents (between January
and March 2016) intercepted near two key tourist attractions
within the destinations and asked to participate. A total of 340
questionnaires were returned, of which only 333 were usable for
analysis. Of these respondents, 45% were men. The average age of
the respondents was about 35 years. Most of them (90%) were
Muslim, having resided in the area 11e30 years. A total of 68.5%
were Malays, 3.1% were Chinese, and 0.3% were Indians, while 28%
were of other ethnic groups.
3.2. Measurement
Each measure utilized within the study comes from extant
empirical research. Eleven items from Woosnam and Norman's
Emotional Solidarity Scale (2010) were used to measure welcoming
nature (four items), emotional closeness (four items), and sympa-
thetic understanding (three items) with tourists in the two
Malaysian destinations (see Appendix 1). Community commitment
was measured using five items from the work of Kang et al. (2007).
To assess Malaysian residents' perceptions of tourism in the two
destinations, twelve items concerning residents' attitudes about
tourism (six items) and support for tourism development (six
items) were utilized from Ajzen’s (1991) and Nunkoo and
Ramkissoon (2011) work. Personality traits were measured with
44 items (Big Five constructs) following John and Srivastava (1999).
All of the items were asked using a 5-point agreement Likert Scale
(i.e., 1 ¼ strongly disagree; 5 ¼ strongly agree). It should be noted
that results of reliability tests (see Appendix 1) shows that the value
of Cronbach a for most of the variables are more than 0.7 except
some dimensions of personality, for which the value was close to
0.7. Using AMOS, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was under-
taken to assess factor structures and structural equation modelling
(SEM) was utilized to examine structural paths (i.e., each of the
248 S. Moghavvemi et al. / Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254
formulated hypotheses) within the proposed model. Multiple
group analysis (also using AMOS) was undertaken to examine the
moderating effects of personality and gender on the relationship
between emotional solidarity factors and residents' attitudes con-
cerning tourism.
4. Data analysis and results
An initial CFA was undertaken (with all constructs included) in
AMOS to assess factor structure and establish a measurement
model (so that psychometric properties of model constructs could
examined). The resulting Chi-square (c2) for the model had a value
of 807.04, with a c2/df value of 2.08. Incremental and absolute
model fit indices (e.g., CFI ¼ 0.92; TLI ¼ 0.90; GFI ¼ 0.87;
AGFI ¼ 0.83; RMSEA ¼ 0.06) were also examined and shown to
demonstrate adequate fit.
Both composite reliabilities (CR) and average variance extracted
(AVE) estimates were examined to evaluate convergent validity.
The value of the composite reliability for most of the constructs
exceeded the 0.70 threshold. Values for the two personality trait
dimensions and sympathetic understanding was close to 0.70. AVE
values all surpassed the 0.50 critical value (see Table 1). Per Hair,
Black, Babin, Anderson, and Tatham (2010) recommendations,
such results demonstrate convergent validity. Furthermore, the
square root of each AVE was compared to inter-construct correla-
tions. All correlations were lower than the square root of each AVE,
demonstrating discriminant validity (Hair et al., 2010). Such evi-
dence provides overall support for construct validity.
Following the establishment of the measurement model, SEM
was undertaken to examine each path associated with model hy-
potheses. The structural model tested the influence of welcoming
nature, emotional closeness, sympathetic understanding, commu-
nity commitment, agreeableness and openness to experience on
residents' attitude and their support towards tourism develop-
ment. The overall model indicated acceptable fit, Chi-square
(c2) ¼ 833.80, c2/df ¼ 2.11, CFI ¼ 0.92, RMSEA ¼ 0.06, TLI ¼ 0.90,
GFI ¼ 0.86, and AGFI ¼ 0.83 (Hair et al., 2010). Each path was sig-
nificant, supporting all nine hypotheses. The significant effect of
agreeableness and openness to experience personality traits sug-
gest that differing personalities can yield divergent attitudes
regarding tourism and ultimately support for accompanying
development. The results demonstrate a stronger effect among the
openness to experience group (P ¼ 0.000) compared to the
agreeableness group (P ¼ 0.049). Of the three emotional solidarity
factors, sympathetic understanding was the strongest positive
predictor of residents' attitudes toward tourism. As shown in
Table 2, attitude was a strong predictor of residents' support to-
wards tourism development. Overall, welcoming nature, emotional
closeness, sympathetic understanding, community commitment,
openness to experience, and agreeableness were able to predict
83% (R2) of the variance in residents’ attitudes about tourism and
73% of the variance in support for tourism development.
Table 1
Composite reliability, average variance extracted, and square root of AVE.
CR AVE
1. Welcoming nature 0.758 0.660
2. Emotional closeness 0.794 0.700
3. Sympathetic understanding 0.687 0.531
4. Residents' attitude 0.874 0.762
5. Support for tourism development 0.840 0.753
6. Agreeableness 0.605 0.522
7. Openness to experience 0.675 0.630
8. Community commitment 0.873 0.761
**p < 0.01; **p < 0.05. CR ¼ composite reliability, Value on diagonal are square root of AVE.
4.1. Moderating effect of personality
In the second stage of analysis, the moderating effect of per-
sonality on the relationship between emotional solidarity factors
and attitudes toward tourism developments was examined. In so
doing, each personality dimension was divided into two groups
based on the mean (i.e., high and low levels). The constrained and
unconstrained models were run using multiple group analysis in
AMOS. Results showed that the Chi-square (c2) differences were
significant for residents with high and low extraversion and
agreeableness (Table 3), while the effect was not significant for
openness to experience, consciousness, and neuroticism. Further-
more, extraversion and agreeableness moderated the relationship
between welcoming nature and emotional closeness but not sym-
pathetic understanding. While the effect was significant for both
low and high agreeableness groups, results revealed the effect of
welcoming nature was higher for those exhibiting low levels of
agreeableness. The effect of extraversion on the relationship be-
tween welcoming nature and resident attitudes concerning
tourism was significant (nearly identical based on standardized
regression coefficients for both low and high levels of the person-
ality trait). Although extraversion and agreeableness moderate the
relationship between emotional closeness and attitude towards
tourism development, the effect was not significant for either
group. The effect was stronger for those demonstrating higher
levels of agreeableness compare to those exhibiting lower levels of
agreeableness. The effect is different among residents based on
level of extraversion, with a strong, positive effect among the low
extraversion group yet negative and weak among the group with
high extraversion levels (see Table 3). These results indicate the
differing perceptions among people with divergent personality
traits.
4.2. Moderating effect of gender
An identical multiple group analysis was undertaken to consider
the moderating effects of gender on the relationship between
emotional solidarity factors and residents' attitudes toward
tourism. Results revealed that gender did indeed moderate the
relationship (Table 4). The effects of welcoming nature and
emotional closeness on residents’ attitudes toward tourism were
significant among females but not males, while the effect of sym-
pathetic understanding on attitudes was not significant for either
males or females. In light of this, the effect of sympathetic under-
standing was positive for males yet negative for females, while the
effect was stronger among females.
5. Conclusion and discussion
Findings from this study revealed that welcoming nature,
sympathetic understanding, emotional closeness, community
commitments and two distinct aspects of personality have
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0.812
0.628** 0.836
0.488** 0.713** 0.728
0.554** 0.503** 0.400** 0.872
0.503** 0.454** 0.417** 0.573** 0. 867
0.250** 0.220** 0.094 0.180** 0.173** 0.722
0.008 0.035 0.090 0.140* 0.052 0.465** 0.793
0.464** 0.528** 0.440** 0.653** 0.502** 0.284** 0.056 0.872
 S. Moghavvemi et al. / Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254 249

Table 2
Hypothesis testing on residents’ Attitude towards support for tourism development.

Hypotheses b S.E. C.R. P Supported

H1 Welcoming Nature / Attitude 0.542 0.187 4.002 *** Yes

H2 Emotional Closeness / Attitude 0.812 0.460 2.157 0.031* Yes
H3 Sympathetic Understanding / Attitude 0.624 0.266 2.187 0.029* Yes
H4 Community Commitment / Attitude 0.489 0.099 5.133 0.010** Yes
H5 Openness to experience / Attitude 0.212 0.083 3.346 *** Yes
H6 Agreeableness / Attitude 0.283 0.217 1.966 0.049* Yes
H8 Attitude / Support Tourism Development 0.857 0.068 12.371 *** Yes

b: Standardized Regression Weight S.E.: Standardized Error; C.R.: Critical Ratio; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.

Table 3 its accompanying development.

Moderating effect of personality (agreeableness and extraversion group). The relationship between sympathetic understanding and res-
Hypotheses (H7) В S.E C.R P Moderating Effect idents' attitudes toward tourism was also found to be positive.
Welcoming Nature/ Attitudes Yes
Despite findings by Woosnam (2012) and Woosnam, Shafer, Scott,
High Agreeableness 0.329 0.191 3.037 0.002** and Timothy (2015) that indicated the factor was the best predic-
Low Agreeableness 0.418 0.156 2.934 0.003** tor within said studies, within the current model it actually
Emotional Closeness/ Attitudes Yes demonstrated the weakest relationship with residents' attitudes.
High Agreeableness 0.443 0.249 1.946 0.052
Arguably, those residents who have had the opportunity and
Low Agreeableness 0.145 0.252 0.490 0.624
experience to travel to different regions and countries possess a
Welcoming Nature/ Attitudes Yes better level of understanding of what it means to be a tourist
High Extraversion 0.421 0.321 2.221 0.026*
Low Extraversion 0.416 0.127 3.655 ***
themselves, which ultimately aids in contributing to well-informed
Emotional Closeness/ Attitudes Yes perspectives concerning attitudes about tourism (Draper et al.,
High Extraversion 0.117 0.454 0.304 0.761 2011). Given residents’ limited abilities to travel from the present
Low Extraversion 0.494 0.228 1.891 0.059 destinations within the study, this may serve to explain why
b: Standardized Regression Weight S.E.: Standardized Error; C.R.: Critical Ratio; sympathetic understanding was not the most powerful predictor in
*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. the model.
Emotional closeness, while it was a significant predictor of
Table 4 residents' attitudes, the relationship was negative such that
Moderating effect of gender. increased levels of closeness served to explain more negative per-
Hypotheses В S.E C.R P Moderating Effect spectives residents had of tourism. This is an unprecedented
finding within the works of Woosnam and colleagues. While
H9a Welcoming Nature/ Attitudes Yes
Male 0.196 0.156 1.433 0.152 emotional closeness has demonstrated an insignificant effect (or
Female 0.513 0.180 4.035 *** marginally positive at times) on attitudes (Woosnam, 2012), never
H9b Emotional Closeness/ Attitudes Yes before has it been a negative predictor of considered phenomena.
Male 0.104 0.245 0.420 0.675
Woosnam and Aleshinloye (2013) claimed this closeness can be
Female 0.787 0.302 2.330 0.020*
H9c Sympathetic Understanding / Yes considered the most intimate form of solidarity of the three factors.
Attitudes Not only may it be difficult to experience for some residents, but it
Male 0.363 0.161 1.723 0.055 can have the potential to foster negative experiences with tourists.
Female 0.528 0.261 1.611 0.107 Lepp (2008) found that some local villagers were upset with
b: Standardized Regression Weight S.E.: Standardized Error; C.R.: Critical Ratio; Western tourists because their presence and interactions disrupted
*p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001. locals' social and cultural practices, challenging what was deemed
socially acceptable norms. Tatoglu, Erdal, Ozgur, and Azakli (2002)
significant effects on residents' attitudes and support for tourism demonstrated that close interactions with tourists contributed to a
development. Despite results indicating that degrees of welcoming feeling that locals’ lifestyles (i.e., recreational activities, dress,
nature and sympathetic understanding were positively related to entertainment, and eating habits) were impacted negatively.
residents’ attitudes concerning tourism, the relationship between Commitment to community served as a significantly influential
emotional closeness and the attitude towards tourism develop- predictor within the model. As Hibbard and Karle (2002) found,
ment was negative. As evidenced in the literature, Woosnam (2012) residents that possess high levels of such commitment are highly
found similar mixed results (i.e., not all relationships were signifi- dedicated toward their community in striving to accomplish posi-
cant) in examining the relationship between emotional solidarity tive changes, socially connected with other community members,
scale factors and perceived levels of tourism impacts. and possess elevated levels of community pride. Given the growing
In terms of the role welcoming nature plays in explaining resi- interest in promoting rural destinations in an effort to positively
dents' attitudes, it makes intuitive sense that those who are impact local economies, it makes intuitive sense that those resi-
embracing of visitors would perceive the impacts of tourism in a dents with high degrees of commitment to community are keenly
positive manner. Given the newfound excitement of emerging rural aware of the potential economic benefits that come from having
tourism in Malaysia (Hasani et al., 2016), this stands to reason that tourists visit. Jang, Olfman, Ko, Koh, and Kim (2008) deduced that
residents see the benefit of tourism and likely find themselves commitment is considered an attitudinal factor which encourages
euphoric about the potential tourism has on contributing to their an individual to engage in a continuing relationship with other
local economies and communities (Doxey, 1975) as such destina- community members because they see that it is beneficial and
tions would likely fall somewhere between what Butler (2006) constructive. Therefore, when residents’ level of community
would consider the ‘exploration’ and ‘involvement’ stages. commitment increases, it can be assumed that members will
Woosnam (2011) argues that this solidarity factor is largely internalize the needs and wants of others in the community to reap
responsible for contributing to positive perceptions of tourism and potential benefits from the tourism industry, hence giving way to
250 S. Moghavvemi et al. / Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254
more positive attitudes concerning tourism and its development.
Each of the two personality traits (i.e., openness to experience
and agreeableness) were also found to be positive significant pre-
dictors of residents’ attitudes regarding tourism. As Tan and Tang
(2013) found, individuals open to new experiences tend to be
imaginative and curious, with diverse interests. Thus, those resi-
dents with such a personality will be more inclined to be open to
the tourism industry and its corresponding benefits, such as
improving the social standings of women and providing better job
opportunities (Tatoglu et al., 2002). Reisz, Boudreaux, and Ozer
(2013) asserted that individuals with such personalities desire to
improve fine arts, gain new skills, and obtain greater knowledge. It
stands to reason that such residents will be more enthusiastic about
tourism and encourage the proliferation of the industry within the
community.
Those individuals demonstrating high levels of agreeableness
were found to have positive attitudes about tourism. Bartels et al.
(2012) claims that such individuals tend to be very pleasant and
accommodating in any kind of social situation. Given this, those
residents possessing high levels of agreeableness should have the
highest levels of tolerance and accommodation for impacts brought
on by tourism. Since agreeable individuals place others’ interests
and well-being ahead of their own (John & Srivastava, 1999), it can
be presumed that such residents would place the importance of
tourism benefits enjoyed by many in the community ahead of their
own and work together with other members to ensure such ben-
efits are leveraged for all within the community.
Residents' attitudes about tourism served to be a strong pre-
dictor of their support for tourism development, the study's ulti-
mate dependent variable. As described by the social exchange
theory, residents will only engage in exchanges if they realize re-
wards will exceed costs (Nunkoo & Ramkissoon, 2012). It stands to
reason that when residents experience more advantages and ben-
efits from the tourism industry, they will have more positive atti-
tudes and be more supportive of its development (Nunkoo &
Ramkissoon, 2012). Furthermore, those residents that rely on
tourism for their livelihoods and income will be more likely to
possess positive attitudes about the industry and in turn, be sup-
portive of tourism development given the potential for enhanced
employment opportunities, increased personal income, and
increased standards of living (Nunkoo & Ramkissoon, 2010). Given
the increasing interest in rural tourism within Malaysia and in the
two destinations in particular, such a dependence is largely implicit
within many residents' perspectives.
In looking closer at the relationships between emotional soli-
darity factors and residents' attitudes about tourism, the Big Five
personality traits and gender were considered moderators. While
results were somewhat mixed, personality traits were shown to
moderate the relationship more consistently. More specifically,
agreeableness and extraversion were shown to be the most sig-
nificant moderators, but only for welcoming nature and emotional
closeness. Openness to experience, conscientiousness, and
neuroticism did not influence the relationship. This could be
explained by the fact that individuals who tend to be more agree-
able are typically kind, gentle, friendly, warm, good-natured, and
usually prefer to engage and form relationships with others (Haq,
Ramay, Rehman, & Jam, 2010). Hence, agreeable residents would
tend to interconnect with tourists more often, and they will be able
to engage in interpersonal relationships, communicate and ex-
change knowledge with them, which could then encourage a more
positive attitude towards tourism development as they would be
able to experience the benefits from this relationship with tourists.
The relationship between residents’ emotional closeness and atti-
tude was not significant for either high or low agreeableness group
while the effect was different among them. The strong effect of
emotional closeness among the high agreeableness group suggests
that people who are more agreeable are considerate of others and
possess caring attitudes and behaviours (Kvasova, 2015; Ying &
Norman, 2014), thus it can be presumed that residents possessing
high levels of agreeableness would feel more connected to tourists
(Flores Jr & Berenbaum, 2014) and hold positive views of tourism
compared to those with low levels of agreeableness (while this was
not the main concern for either group).
Results showed that the relationship between welcoming na-
ture and residents' attitudes was also moderated by degree of ex-
traversion. Given the ability for extraverts to be assertive,
unrestrained, and confident, they have the capability to influence
others in a positive manner (Lin & Worthley, 2011). This suggests
that extraverted residents would possess high levels of welcoming
nature towards tourists because they possess much cheerfulness
and excitement-seeking characteristics, fostering positive attitudes
concerning tourism. The relationship between residents’ emotional
closeness and attitudes about tourism was different among those
with low extraversion (i.e., introverted) and high extraversion
while not significant for either group. The stronger effect among
those in the low extraversion group may suggest that they exhibit
more care or less negative expressions compared to those in the
high extraversion group. This could be due to the fact that few in-
dividuals identified as extraverted or, as Lin and Worthley (2011)
point out, introverted individuals tend to repress their negative
feelings toward others. With the current campaign to increase
tourism in rural Malaysian destinations (highlighted by community
economic benefits), these highly introverted residents may have
convinced themselves to go out of their way to be close with
tourists which translated to positive attitudes about tourism while
highly extraverted individuals behave differently.
Gender was a significant moderator in the relationship between
each of the three solidarity factors and residents' attitudes about
tourism. Among women, the effect was significantly positive
considering welcoming nature and emotional closeness. As Nunkoo
et al. (2010) contends, femininity underlines consideration and
concern for other people. In this regard, it stands to reason that
women may seek to go out of their way to welcome tourists, which
potentially fosters positive experiences for visitors and translates to
residents' positive perceptions of tourism. While women tend to
oppose tourism more often than men (Mason & Cheyne, 2000;
Nunkoo et al., 2010) due to potential disruptions in community
life, our findings reveal that emotionally connecting with tourists
can potentially aid in contributing to positive perceptions of
tourism. Considering the relationship between sympathetic un-
derstanding and residents’ attitudes, the effect was different among
male and female even though the effect was not significant for both
groups. This may be explained by the fact that men are likely more
involved within the delivery of tourism services (i.e., guiding,
driving, etc.) within the destinations and exposed more to tourists,
which grants them the opportunity to understand visitors more
readily. As Woosnam (2011) put forth, such degrees of interaction
serve to foster sympathetic understanding, which then translates to
positive attitudes concerning tourism in general (Woosnam, 2012).
5.1. Theoretical and managerial implications
This research extends and validates the emotional solidarity
model by adding support for tourism development as an outcome
and personality and community commitment as predictors of
attitude to support tourism development. In so doing, the effect of
personality and residents' community commitment aids in
contributing to a high percent of variance explained within the
model. This model has the ability to measure residents' emotional
closeness with tourist and tourism development and the effect of
 S. Moghavvemi et al. / Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254 251

resident's personality. Additionally, the social exchange theory is
used in tandem to help explain the results, for which Ward and
Berno (2011) has called. In essence, our model considers
numerous internal factors within individuals in an effort to explain
the external effects of tourism on two rural communities. Our work
provides greater understanding of the relationship between resi-
dents and tourists within destinations that has traditionally
focused on economic exchanges between the ‘host’ and ‘guest.’
Furthermore, the moderating effect of gender serves to explain how
such relationships impact residents' perspectives of tourism within
destinations, ultimately contributing to support for the industry.
The results of this study could create awareness for destination
marketing organizations in efforts to better analyse and compre-
hend residents' support for tourism development. No community is
homogenous in terms of perspectives of tourism and support for
the industry. Consideration of gender, personality, commitment to
the community and relationships with tourists need to be made as
destinations wrestle with how to better foster sustainable tourism.
As explained in the beginning of this paper, the Malaysian gov-
ernment has taken many steps to promote tourism development in
the country as they implement programs throughout the country
such as Malaysian second homes, homestays, cultural and local
events and many others in efforts to attract tourists and increase
economic contributions. Understanding residents' feeling and their
psychological factors can help the government to implement policy
decreasing the gap between residents and tourists and foster better
tourist experiences, ultimately contributing to revisit intentions
(i.e., loyalty) and positive word-of-mouth dissemination. When this
occurs, we can appraise the positive and negative effects of the
relationships that exist between residents and tourists, and better
plan for sustainable tourism development within tourist destina-
tions. Indeed, by conducting this research, the necessary authorities
would be able to recognize the key elements that influence resi-
dents’ attitudes about tourists and they could also prepare an
appropriate environment platform for both residents and tourists
to obtain a more positive outlook as far as tourism development is
concerned.
5.2. Limitation and future research
As with any research, limitations exist. This study was under-
taken using samples in two distinctive Malaysian destinations.
With that said, results should be considered with some degree of
caution so as not to generalize to all rural Malaysian destinations.
Similar work should be conducted throughout the country to in-
crease such external validity and compare differing degrees of
emotional solidarity. As Woosnam (2012) contends, perceptions of
the construct can be as diverse as the compositional makeup of
community residents.
Additional work should be undertaken to amend the existing
model with the inclusion of cultural differences (e.g., attitudinal as
well as behavioural measures) not only among resident groupings
but between residents and tourists. Attitudinal differences could
take the shape of perceptions of traditions, values, beliefs, as well as
religious practices. Behavioural measures may be ascertained
through frequency of participation in specific activities concerning
travel, day-to-day life, and religious practices. Such distinctions
may serve to explain the relationships between solidarity, resi-
dents' attitudes about tourism and support for tourism develop-
ment. Future research should also be undertaken to examine how
emotional solidarity affects residents' social well-being and quality
of life. Such measures could also extend the model and be
considered dependent variables of support for tourism develop-
ment. Lastly, while personality and gender served as significant
moderators between solidarity and residents' attitudes of tourism,
the two constructs may also serve to explain residents’ levels of
community commitment.
Acknowledgements
Long Term Research Grant scheme (LRGS) entitled “Socio-Cul-
tural Responsible Rural Tourism Framework” (Vote 4L801) project
provided financial support for this research.
Appendix 1

Items in the questionnaire Mean S.D Cronbach

a
Welcoming Nature 4.30 0.670 0.773
I am proud to have tourists in this area/community 4.41 0.617
I feel the community benefits from having tourists in this area 4.24 0.711
I appreciate tourists for the contribution they make to the local economy 4.30 0.716
I treat tourists well in this area/community 4.25 0.637
Emotional Closeness 4.09 0.778 0.814
I feel close to some tourists I met in this area/community 4.04 0.730
I have made friends with some tourists in this area/community 4.00 0.848
I enjoy interacting with tourists 4.19 0.784
My interactions with tourists are positive and useful 4.13 0.750
Sympathetic Understanding 3.87 0.817 0.718
I have a lot in common with the tourists in this area/community 3.63 0.854
I feel affection towards tourists in this area/community 4.03 0.809
I understand tourists in this area/community 3.96 0.790
Community Commitment 4.18 0.777 0.877
I have a sense of belonging to this area/community 4.22 0.772
I have psychological attachment to this area/community 4.11 0.774
I think that exchanging opinions with other members in the area/community is important 4.24 0.754
I expect that I will continuously participate in community activities 4.11 0.835
I feel that this area/community is a part of me 4.24 0.754
Attitude toward Tourism 4.17 0.800 0.913
Having tourists in the area/community is a good idea 4.18 0.790
Improving tourism activity in the area/community is a wise idea 4.18 0.788
I like the idea of having more tourists in the area/community 4.21 0.814
(continued on next page)
252 S. Moghavvemi et al. / Tourism Management 63 (2017) 242e254

(continued )

Items in the questionnaire Mean S.D Cronbach

a
Having tourists in this area/community is pleasant 4.15 0.815
The presence of tourists in this area/community is interesting 4.18 0.806
Having tourists in this area/community is fun 4.17 0.792
Support 4.14 0.822 0.891
Tourism can be one of the most important industries for a community 4.06 0.893
I support the development of community based sustainable tourism initiatives 4.17 0.829
I support new tourism facilities that will attract new tourists to my area/community 4.14 0.822
Additional tourism would help this community grow in the right direction 4.10 0.802
I am happy and proud to see tourists are interested with what my community has to offer 4.23 0.790
I believe tourism should be actively encouraged in my area/community 4.14 0.796
Extraversion 3.71 1.02 0.755
Is talkative 4.02 0.994
Is reserved 3.41 1.192
Is full of energy 4.13 0.885
Generates a lot of enthusiasm 4.13 0.827
Tends to be quiet 3.28 1.18
Has an assertive personality 3.82 0.904
Is sometimes shy, inhibited 2.94 1.32
Is outgoing, sociable 3.97 0.924
Agreeableness 3.81 1.04 0.666
Tends to find fault with others 3.74 1.139
Is helpful and unselfish with others 4.07 0.927
Starts quarrels with others 3.70 1.25
Has a forgiving nature 3.94 0.994
Is generally trusting 3.95 0.823
Can be cold and aloof 3.41 1.30
Is considerate and kind to almost everyone 4.08 0.899
Is sometimes rude to others 3.39 1.27
Likes to cooperate with others 4.06 0.808
Conscientiousness 3.46 1.00 0.632
Does a thorough job 3.93 0.938
Can be somewhat careless 2.79 1.003
Tends to be disorganized 3.43 1.11
Is a reliable worker 4.03 0.924
Tends to be lazy 3.78 1.28
Perseveres until the task is finished 3.99 0.94
Does things efficiently 3.92 0.934
Makes plans and follows through with them 3.80 0.866
Is easily distracted 3.09 1.01
Neuroticism 2.67 1.02 0.717
Is depressed, blue 3.06 1.081
Is relaxed, handles stress well 2.14 0.800
Can be tense 2.71 1.11
Worries a lot 3.03 1.09
Is emotionally stable, not easily upset 2.45 0.98
Can be moody 2.73 1.19
Remains calm in tense situations 2.14 0.888
Gets nervous easily 3.12 1.09
Openness to Experience 3.49 0.919 0.687
Is original, comes up with new ideas 3.67 0.924
Is curious about many different things 4.11 0.865
Is ingenious, a deep thinker 3.91 0.834
Has an active imagination 3.71 0.845
Is inventive 3.61 0.87
Values artistic, aesthetic experiences 3.88 1.00
Prefers work that is routine 2.05 0.941
Likes to reflect, play with ideas 3.54 0.841
Has few artistic interests 2.96 1.09
Is sophisticated in art, music, or literature 3.48 0.988

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