Can Tourism Social Entrepreneurship Organizations Contribute to the Development of Ecotourism and Local Communities: Understanding the Perception of Local Communities

Abstract

The literature emphasizes that tourism social entrepreneurs play an important role in the adoption of sustainable strategies to achieve social, environmental, and community development. Yet, there is limited research that aims to understand the relationship between local communities and tourism social entrepreneurship empirically. Building around social exchange theory and Weber’s theory of substantive and formal rationality, this study addresses the following research question: how do local communities perceive the role of tourism social entrepreneurship (TSE) in the development of ecotourism destinations? A total of 362 community employees of two ecotourism organizations in India participated in the survey. Analytically, this study validated the measurement model and tested hypotheses using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings reveal that the economic benefits and environmental sustainability are the main influencing factors that are appreciated by the communities. However, we found variance in the community perceptions with regard to several factors being studied in the two TSEs we studied. This study recommends that in order to contribute to the development of ecotourism and local communities there is an urge to build strong ties among different stakeholders at the local level.

Research in tourism sustainability: A comprehensive bibliometric analysis from 1990 to 2022

“… Basic topics Related topics Citing references Sustainable Tourism Conservation Management, Climate Change, National Park [ [100] , [101] , [102] , [103] ] [ 104 ] Conservation management Nature Conservation [ [105] , [106] , [107] ] Climate Change Climate Effect, Environmental Change, Developing World. [ [108] , [109] , [110] ] National Park Marine Park, Nature Society Relations [ [46] , [111] , [112] ] Recreational Activity Nature-based Tourism, Outdoor Recreation [ [113] , [114] , [115] ] Economic Activity Entrepreneurship, Performance Assessment [ [116] , [117] , [118] ] Local Participation Community Development, Public Participation [ [45] , [119] , [120] ] Wildlife Management Conservation Policies, Species Conservation [ [44] , [121] , [122] ] ...…”

Sustainability Potential of Marginal Areas for Food, Feed, and Non-Food Production in the Puglia Region, Southern Italy: Part II: A Review

“…Their work shows that there are opportunities to generate employment and create financial profit from the cultivation and supply of Miscanthus using low-quality, marginal land. Similarly, tourism can be a beneficial economic and social venture [40]. Areas with exceptional natural beauty, like marginal landscapes, can be especially valuable for tourism [41].…”

Impact of Organizational Culture on Organisational Performance: A Study on the Employees in Educational Institutions

“…The organisational learning concept has received immense attention since 1980. Past research in this field has proved that organisational learning enhances an organisation's performance by creating highly developed knowledge for employees (Al Dari et al, 2021;Kummitha et al, 2021a). Ihsaan et al (2013) stated that to preserve a great position in a quickly developing society and competitive market, organisations got to focus on organisational learning and shifting into learning organisations.…”

“…al., 2003;Kummitha et al, 2021a). Organisations typically implement important steps, including recruiting, section, training and development, compensation, and performance management.…”