Examining antecedents of residents’ support for the European Capital of Culture project – event’s sustainability perception, emotional solidarity, community attachment and brand trust

PurposeThe primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects on support for the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) project development of residents’ perception of the project’s sustainability, emotional solidarity toward tourists, community attachment and brand trust.Design/methodology/approachSurvey research was conducted among 303 residents of Novi Sad, which has been selected to be the ECoC for the year 2022.FindingsThe findings confirmed the positive roles of three aspects of the event’s sustainability and three facets of emotional solidarity in shaping local people’s support for the ECoC event development. Besides, findings show the positive effect of residents’ community attachment and ECoC brand trust in predicting their supportive attitudes for the event development. Finally, results highlight which areas of the event’s sustainability are still unsatisfactory from the residents’ perspective, making it easier for event practitioners to optimally focus their attention and resources on enhancing problematic areas of the event’s sustainability.Originality/valueThe present study contributes to existing tourism literature as it is the first to explore the role local people’s perception of event sustainability, emotional solidarity toward tourists, community attachment and brand trust plays in their support for the ECoC event development. In addition, a unique contribution lies in the confirmation of brand trust as a significant antecedent of residents’ support, as this relationship remained an unexplored area in tourism literature. Practical implications, specifically derived for ECoC event practitioners, which should also find their place in securing residents’ support toward the development of any cultural event that attracts visitors, are discussed in the paper.

Profiling Attached Residents in an Urban Community in the U.S.: An Empirical Study of Social–Landscape Interactions within a Park

Community attachment has been studied predominantly in terms of the social dimensions of community life, which explains what makes residents feel connected to a locality. Following a more recent trend within the community attachment literature, this study examined the role of communities’ physical dimensions in fostering sentiments of rootedness and connections to communities. More specifically, the study sought to better understand the role that urban parks play in predicting community attachment using a discriminant analysis technique to profile attached residents. We selected Discovery Green Park in Houston, Texas, as the study site, where we administered 606 total surveys to park visitors inquiring about their interactions with the park itself, emotional connections to it, and social interactions within the park. We found that strongly attached residents tend to be older, have a greater reliance on the park service and programs, and have meaningful interactions with new people in the park and frequently visit the park in groups to socialize and relax. Additionally, those who are strongly attached to the community attribute greater symbolic meanings to Discovery Green and more strongly identify with the park. The profile of residents attached to the community, given their interactions with the park and its visitors, provides important knowledge to both park managers and community leaders; they can use this information to create conditions, fostering more strongly attached residents who tend to be active agents of positive change in the community.

AN INVESTIGATION OF RESIDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF POSITIVE FESTIVAL IMPACTS, COMMUNITY ATTACHMENT AND WELL-BEING: A STUDY ON THE JAMESON FESTIVAL, VICTORIA FALLS, ZIMBABWE

The Study aims to examine residents’ perception of positive festival impacts, social cohesion and cultural benefits on the relationship between community attachment and well-being. An integration of the Social Exchange and Affect Theories are employed to develop and test a conceptual model that test the interrelationships. The quantitative research approach is used to conduct the study on resident attendees of the Jameson Festival in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Via the convenience sampling technique data are collected. Results of the study indicate that festivals foster community cohesiveness and community attachment. They also show that the perceived positive festival impact: community cohesiveness is strongly related to community attachment and well-being; community attachment mediates the relationships. Contrarily, though the relationship between festival cultural preservation and community attachment was partially supported, there was no significant association to well-being. The theoretical implications of the study lay mainly on the introduction of a new theory to the festival body of studies and the study’ findings shed light and direction on practical implications and future directions for festival organizers and scholars

Willingness to Stay of Tourism Lifestyle Entrepreneurs: A Configurational Perspective

Tourism lifestyle entrepreneurs play an essential role in the innovation, sustainability, and competitiveness of tourism destinations. Thus, the ability of a destination to attract and retain this type of entrepreneur is an essential factor in strategic decisions. The limited research on this class of entrepreneurs implies that decision makers have little information about the factors that contribute to their willingness to stay in a particular destination. To address this challenge, this study employs a mixed-method approach, combining a quantitative survey-based study with a qualitative study by means of in-depth interviews. Based on survey data and using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, this study identifies three equifinal configurations of antecedent factors (entrepreneurial self-efficacy, community-centered strategy, community attachment, and place attachment) that lead to a willingness to stay. Place attachment is the single-core condition. Moreover, the findings show that TLEs are not a homogeneous group. On the contrary, these entrepreneurs are driven by different motives and personal backgrounds. These results represent important insights for the definition of more sustainable strategies in destinations.

Community Attachment and Environmental Stewardship: A Peri-Urban Perspective

This Chapter questions the negligence of attachment scholarship in the context of environmental stewardship with a specific focus in peri-urban areas. This Chapter has illuminated the imperatives of considering place attachement as an important factor in realizing environment stewardship in peri-urban areas. Three selected hamlets (Nzasa, Kisarawe and Pugu-Kibaoni) constitute the study area. A standard closed-ended questionnaire for assessing the extent of attachment of the community was deployed. Literature review on the other hand was used to map baseline information of the study area including the historical significance of the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi forest reserves. Three attachment attributes were explored;, community knowlegiability levels of the area; level of thoughts and feelings of the area; and the extent of community connection to natural resources in the area. It was revealed that the extent of community connection to the forest reserves are relatively strong. The study revealed considerable contrast on forest knowledgiability levels among men and women in the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi forest reserves. Males are generally revealed to be more knowledgiable of the Pugu and Kazimzumbwi forest reserves as compared to their female counterparts. The study revealed that there was substantial relationship between residence status and the level of thoughts and feelings on the forest reserves. The study has shown that natives have more thoughts and feelings of the present and the future of the forest reserves as compared to those who migrated from other parts of the country. The findings suggest that community attachment is of considerable importance in influencing environmental behavior either positively or negatively. Whilist the empirical evidence are drawn from the peri-urban areas of Pugu and Kazimzumbwi forest reserves of Dar es Salaam city, the message thereoff is representing a broad reality in the peri-urban areas of the Global South. The inclusion of community attachment perspective in negotiating environmental stewardship is advocated for as it might contribute in addressing the growing degradation of natural resources in peri-urban areas which has been increasingly declining.