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Community residents' support is one of the key factors affecting the development of tourist destinations. A clear understanding of influencing factors and internal transmission mechanisms in community residents' support for tourism can lend to a theoretical basis and reference for tourism management departments to formulate relevant policies. It is therefore conducive to the rapid recovery and sustainable development of tourism amidst the intermittent outbreaks of COVID-19 pandemic. Taking Guilin as the site for a case study, this study examined the effect of local residents' perceptions of risks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, benefits of tourism and residents' participation in it, government trust, and support for tourism. In particular, the intermediary role of residents' tourism participation and the moderating role of government trust has been explored. A total of 383 residents in Guilin City were selected as the sample for hierarchical regression analysis. The results showed that perceived risks had a significant negative impact on support for tourism, but no significant impact on resident participation. Tourism's perceived benefits had a significant positive impact on both support for and participation in tourism, and residents' participation played a partial mediating role in the relationship between perceived benefits of and support for tourism. Government trust played a significant moderating role in the relationship between tourism's perceived benefits and residents' participation, between perceived benefits and support for tourism, and between residents' participation in and support for tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationships between tourism destination competitiveness (TDC), empowerment, and support for tourism among residents. It also examines the role of empowerment as a mediator in the relationship between TDC and residents' support for tourism. A total of 711 respondents were used. This study uses descriptive analysis, two-stage factor analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM). The results show that seven antecedents of TDC, namely natural, cultural, contextual competitiveness, complementarity, accommodation, infrastructure, and technology, are identified. Psychological empowerment has most positive effects on five facets of destination competitiveness. The results reveal a mediation effect of empowerment between the destination competitiveness and resident supportive behaviors for tourism. The outcome of this proposed model is support for tourism, which means active supportive actions for tourism among residents. The psychological and economic empowerment dimensions are shown to have positive effects on resident support for tourism. Understanding residents' empowerment and support can be useful for those who develop political policies and action plans for sustainable tourism development. The results can suggest a model for a sustainable destination management, increasing the global reputation of travel destination, and advocacy for sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores residents' support for tourism by introducing—for the first time—the variable of residents' word-of-mouth intention. The tested model proposes that residents' support for tourism is influenced by residents' word-of-mouth and tourism benefits; the model also examines the impacts of community attachment and community involvement on the benefits of tourism. The relationship between tourism benefits and residents' word-of-mouth is the most significant indication of the tested model, followed by the linkage between tourism benefits and support for tourism. Besides this, the positive and significant effect of residents' word-of-mouth on their support for tourism has been proven. The results stress the need for increased focus on the benefits of tourism by increasing community attachment, as they reveal that more attached residents lead to more positive perceptions of the benefits of tourism, consequently having a higher effect on their word-of-mouth intention and support for tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]