Tourism Impacts on Local Residents’ Emotional Solidarity With Tourists: the Case of Mersin

Abstract

Tourism affects the living conditions of local residents in the destinations where it develops in environmental, economic and sociocultural terms. In particular, the rise in the quality of life due to economic contributions of the sector to the region also affects the perceptions of local individuals towards tourism impacts and the way and level of communication with tourists. Emotional solidarity (ES), which examines the relationship between local residents and tourists in detail, is essential in terms of increasing the contribution to tourism development, the tendency of tourists to visit again, and the income of the region from tourism. Accordingly, the objective of the study was to detect the effects of the positive and adverse impacts of tourism on the ES of local residents with tourists. Regression analysis, correlation analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to analyze the research data. The research data were collected both face-to-face and online from individuals residing in Mersin province. The positive impacts of tourism were determined to have positive and significant effects on the 3 dimensions of ES, namely welcoming tourists (WT), emotional closeness (EC), and sympathetic understanding (SU). Besides, it was detected that the adverse impacts had an adverse and significant effect only on WT.