Community involvement and residents’ support for sustainable tourism in a tourism city: Roles of well-being, place attachment, and responsible behavior

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

This study examines how community involvement is associated with residents’ support for sustainable tourism through a sequence of evaluative, well-being, place-based, and behavioral mechanisms. Survey data from 382 residents of Hyderabad, India, were analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling. Community involvement was positively associated with perceived value; perceived value with subjective well-being; subjective well-being with place attachment; and place attachment with environmentally responsible behavior and sustainable-tourism support. Environmentally responsible behavior partially mediated the relationship between place attachment and support for sustainable tourism. This study connects participation and subjective well-being, which are central to community development, with place attachment and stewardship in a single urban-tourism model. Social exchange theory provides the principal explanatory lens, while equity theory is retained as an interpretive perspective on fairness rather than a directly tested theory. The findings identify stewardship as the strongest modeled mechanism and support prioritizing resident voice, place-based well-being, and environmental action.