Community support for sustainable rural tourism development: A moderated-mediation analysis

Increasingly, rural sectors in developing nations have become an area of focus to use sustainable tourism to advance the economic viability of these areas. This study has investigated the community Support for Sustainable Tourism Development (SSTD). The research investigates the influence of Sustainable Tourism Influencing Factors (STIF) on SSTD in rural Gangoni, in eastern part of India. STIF consists of three distinct dimensions; Perceived Economic Impacts (PEI); Perceived Socio-Cultural Impacts (PSCI); and Perceived Environmental Impacts (PENI). Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from residents of Gangoni; with a total sample size of 347 respondents. Structural Equation Modelling served as the primary technique for evaluating the study's hypotheses. The results of this study indicate that the dimensions of STIF (PSCI and PENI) have a significant positive relationship with SSTD. In addition to that, the Community Lifestyle (CL) has acted as a mediating variable between STIF and SSTD; however, the mediation impact of CL is dependent on the level of involvement of the community. The results provide the government, policy makers and other stakeholders with a wealth of information about the rural area. In addition, these results indicate an urgent need for a target approach to be taken to consider social, cultural and environmental factors relating to rural communities so as to encourage participation and create more inclusive and sustainable tourism development opportunities throughout rural regions.