Measuring Residents’ Emotional Solidarity with Tourists: Scale Development of Durkheim’s Theoretical Constructs

Abstract

While it can prove easy to conceptualize of the relationship between residents and tourists as “us versus them,” it devalues the potential for intimate relationships to exist, whereby residents and tourists have many things in common. The theory of emotional solidarity can aid in explaining such an intimate relationship. Developing the framework from previous qualitative work, the purpose of this study is to formulate and validate scales corresponding to the constructs in Durkheim’s theoretical framework of emotional solidarity. Following two initial stages of pilot testing, each scale is included in an onsite self-administered survey instrument, with 455 heads of household completing the instrument in a coastal South Carolina county. Psychometric properties are assessed and each scale is found to be high in internal consistency and construct validity (i.e., convergent and discriminant validity). Implications as well as potential research opportunities concerning emotional solidarity are discussed.

Tourists’ Destination Loyalty through Emotional Solidarity with Residents: An Integrative Moderated Mediation Model

“…This line of research (from the perspective of destination residents solidarity with tourists) began with the development of measures for each of Durkheim's key constructs (i.e., interaction, shared beliefs, and shared behavior) (Woosnam et al 2009), followed by the creation of the 10-item Emotional Solidarity Scale (ESS) comprised of three dimensions: feeling welcomed, emotional closeness, and sympathetic understanding (Woosnam and Norman 2010). Psychometric properties (i.e., reliabilities and validities) for each dimension have been strong despite research contexts being limited to the United States.…”

The Effect of Residents’ Attitude toward Tourism on their Pro-Tourism Behaviour: A Case Study of Hua-Hin Prachubkirikhan

“…The second part measured the perceived impact of tourism (welcome tourists behaviour, perceived local economy, and personal benefit), using a Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). The 12 attributes to measure welcome tourists behaviour, perceived local economy, and personal benefit were adapted from Choi and Sirikaya (2005), Wang and Pfister (2008), and Woosnam and Norman (2010). The third part measured attitude toward tourism using a Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree), and it comprised 6 attributes adapted from Nunkoo and Gursoy (2012).…”

“…Behaviour, Perceived Local Economy, and Personal Benefit Ribeiro, Pinto, Silva, and Woosnam (2017) divided the antecedents of attitude and pro-tourism behaviour into 3 factors; namely, welcome tourists behaviour, perceived local economy, and personal benefit. Woosnam and Norman (2010) proposed the emotional solidarity scale to explain the relationship between residents and tourists. The scale consists of three factors; sympathetic understanding, welcoming visitors, and emotional closeness.…”

The Evaluation of the Impact of Tourism on Residents: The Case of Taormina

“…The study of this resident-tourist-relationship in recent years has been limited to a superficial economic analysis, mostly focused on the role of the tourist considered only as a consumer who pays to have a efficient service rendered by the host community (Wall & Mathieson, 2006;Woosnam & Norman, 2010). It was only during the period of the 1970's that the resident's point of view started to receive more attention, as shown by the great number of studies in literature regarding the attitude of residents towards tourists (Almeida-Santos & Buzinde, 2007;Ishikawa & Fukushibe, 2006;Lepp, 2007;McGehee & Andereck, 2004;Ryan & Cave, 2005;Zhang, Inbakaran, & Jackson, 2006).…”