Research On The Influence Of Social Capital On Residents’ Tourism Support Behavior Intention In Rural Tourism Destinations

Rural tourism is critical to the development of the rural economy,the construction of beautiful and livable villages,the enhancement of rural infrastructure,and the revitalization of the countryside.The development of rural tourism must have the support and participation of the general public.Not only must residents be actively involved in the whole process of rural tourism,but they must also benefit from it,so that they can be mobilized to support it.The continuous development of rural tourism has led to changes in people’s behavioral norms,bringing about negative impacts such as conflict of interest and vicious competition,which in turn has led to changes in trust and relationships between communities and a decrease in residents’ motivation to participate in tourism,which in turn has affected residents’ support for tourism,which will not be conducive to the sustainability of rural tourism development.How to attract more residents to participate in rural tourism and support its development has become an issue of concern to many scholars.Most of the past studies on residents’ tourism support have been focused on their perceptions of tourism,ignoring their characteristics as social beings.In the above context,it is vital to explore the impact of social capital on residents’ tourism support behavior intentions in rural tourism destinations.Therefore,this study uses social capital and social exchange theory as a guide,introduces social capital to investigate the intention of tourism support behavior of residents in rural tourism areas,and introduces tourism participation awareness as a mediating variable to explain the formation of residents’ tourism support behavior intention from a new perspective.Firstly,a research model of social capital on tourism support intention was constructed based on a review of the literature.Secondly,select the residents of Yangshuo rural tourism area as the research object,and 311 samples were collected via on-site interviews and questionnaires.The SPSS and AMOS software were used for the analysis,and structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.Finally,the differential effects of different groups in the hypothetical model were analyzed.The findings show that:(1)The three dimensions: community trust,community norms,and community networks all have a significant positive impact on residents’ tourism support behavior intention.The impact size is:community trust(4.297)> Community Networks(4.056)> Community Norms(3.010).Social capital is the key to improving residents’ intention to support tourism.(2)Social capital positively affects residents’ awareness of tourism participation,and its influence is as follows: community trust(4.041)>community network(2.430)> community norms(2.300);(3)Tourism participation awareness plays a role in social capital and tourism support behavior intention;(4)Difference analysis based on individual characteristics of residents found that individual characteristics have significant differences in the relationship between social capital,tourism participation awareness and tourism support behavior intention.Through empirical analysis,this paper draws several conclusions :(1)We should give full play to the positive effect of social capital in improving residents’ tourism support behavior intention,and pay attention to the cultivation of social capital in rural tourism destinations;(2)Strengthen the cultivation of community residents’ awareness of tourism participation,improve residents’ tourism participation,and promote residents to support the development of rural tourism;(3)Cultivate rural talents,concentrate and form a situation in which residents participate together.