EXPLORING THE EFFECT OF PLACE ATTACHMENT ON THE IMPACTS OF TOURISM TO DETERMINE SIVAS RESIDENTS’ SUPPORT FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

Residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts and their attitudes toward tourism development are among the topics that are frequently examined in the tourism literature. In particular, it is of great importance to determine the perceptions of the residents in the destination where tourism activities are not intense and tourism is not developed yet, in terms of ensuring sustainable tourism development in the destination. Therefore, this study aims to use two different structures (place attachment and the impacts of tourism) together to determine the intention of supporting tourism developments and fill the gap in the literature. The data were collected from 450 participants through the questionnaire forms created in the study and the analysis was carried out with SPSS and AMOS statistics programs. First, factor analysis was applied and then the structural equation model was used. According to the results of the study, while there is no significant relationship between place dependence and intention to support tourism development, it has been determined that place identity and intention to support are determined in a meaningful way. In addition, it has been determined that both negative and positive impacts are predictors of place attachment factors (place identity, place dependence) and there is a significant relationship between residents’ intention to support and behoviral support for tourism development. The suggestions for future studies and the limitation of the current study are presented at the end of this study.