Construal Level Theory as a Framework for Navigating Community Contexts in Tourism Planning

This methodologically focused paper introduces construal level theory of psychological distance (CLT) as a useful framework for tourism and community researchers and planners. This paper compares how residents’ affective responses of satisfaction vary across envisioned scenarios pertaining to local tourism sites, presented with varying degrees of detail and geographic specificity. Two scenarios are tested across three sites of interest, comparing residents’ responses to the sites envisioned generally to the same sites envisioned with tourists visiting. To pinpoint endogenous factors influencing differences in responses, resident subgroups pertaining to neighborhood, work sector, and frequency encountering tourists are compared, reflecting the specific context of a re-emerging, post-war destination. This research suggests that CLT can be a valuable tool to help tourism planners understand the complexities of affective dimensions that may be present in destination communities and identify root causes of support or resistance for tourism development and projects.