Tourists’ perspectives on hard and soft services toward rural tourism destination competitiveness: Community support as a moderator

Abstract

Rural tourism is an integrated part in the services field, and this industry has long been recognized as a valuable tool for economic development in rural destinations. However, the multiplying growth of rural tourism destinations has led to a stiff competition among the industry. Thus, the identification of tourists’ perspective on the hard and soft services components toward the development of rural tourism is a key element in surviving into the rapid tourism competition. The pivotal role of community support as an integral part of tourism product in ensuring sustainable development of rural tourism destination would also being the key indicator for the development of rural tourism. Hence, this study highlighted the importance of tourists’ perspective on hard services (tourism infrastructure and accommodation) and soft services (range of activities and special events) toward the competitiveness of rural tourism destination’s development with community support who act as a moderator. A total of 314 respondents comprising tourists who visited Kampung Semadang, Kampung Telaga Air, and Kubah National Park ( Kampung Matang), Kuching, Sarawak has voluntarily participated in this study. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) is applied based on path modeling and bootstrapping. Interestingly, the findings revealed that tourists are more concerned about the quality of accommodation, infrastructure, range of activities, and special events for the development of tourism destination competitiveness in rural tourism destination. In addition, tourists also believed that the existence of community support is crucial in moderating the relationship between accommodation quality and tourism destination competitiveness. This study further discussed on the implications of the findings, limitations, and directions for future research.

Sustainability and Tourism Competitiveness in Protected Areas: State of Art and Future Lines of Research

“…A balanced attention to resources, the community, and the economy is essential to achieve the sustainability of ecotourism [118]. In this sense, those papers that address social factors (welfare of the local population and community support) and economic factors (hospitality of residents, safety and security, tourism infrastructure, accommodation, availability of diverse activities, value for money in shopping items, the quality of restaurants), become important as a basis for the analysis of competitiveness [119,120] and emerge as an unavoidable future line of research.…”

“…In this sense, the importance of the local population being aware of the value of its social and natural resources, and that tourism can help its economic development is highlighted [127]. Thus, together with economic and environmental perceptions, socio-cultural factors and life satisfaction should be considered key elements to enhance tourism sustainability [119,128].…”

Managing Local Community Participation to Foster Sustainable Tourism Development, the Case of Bali Destination, Indonesia

“…However, Reitsamer et al (2016) have found that tourists' well-being has a significant impact to local people income and also have positively effect of their intention to return, so that, become more attractive effect on the desire to settle a positive word of mouth of the destination. Lo et al (2019) has reported on research study of community support as an integral part of tourism product in supporting tourism destination quality, especially in rural sector . Lo et al (2019) has found that sustainable development of rural tourism destination play an important role for developing rural tourism together with community participation.…”

“…Lo et al (2019) has reported on research study of community support as an integral part of tourism product in supporting tourism destination quality, especially in rural sector . Lo et al (2019) has found that sustainable development of rural tourism destination play an important role for developing rural tourism together with community participation. Compared with other research, Lo et al (2019) significantly found that the competitiveness of rural tourism destination's development is depend on community support act as a moderator.…”

“…Lo et al (2019) has found that sustainable development of rural tourism destination play an important role for developing rural tourism together with community participation. Compared with other research, Lo et al (2019) significantly found that the competitiveness of rural tourism destination's development is depend on community support act as a moderator. It is mean that the quality of accommodation and some other related components.…”