Influences of Local Community Dimensions in Enhancing Support for Sustainable Tourism Development

To promote sustainable development of tourism, the role of the local community and their involvement are undeniable. This study aimed to discover different dimensions of the local community and assess their effects on perceived positive benefits and support for the sustainable development of tourism in Bangladesh by employing the Social Exchange Theory (SET). This study applied Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to a data set of 250 residents of two museums. In this study, three components of the local community specifically community awareness, community involvement, and community attachment were identified and validated while community awareness was newly derived. Findings revealed that all the dimensions had strong positive impacts on perceived positive benefits, and perceived positive benefits had strong positive influences on support for sustainable development.