Residents' Support for Tourism: An Empowerment Perspective with Mediating Roles of Attitudes and Trust in Organisations

While resident empowerment has been considered a crucial factor in predicting their support for tourism, the complex empowerment process is still underexplored. This research studies how residents’ attitudes and trust in tourism organisations influence the relationship between empowerment and support for tourism while considering empowerment as a higher-order construct. Data were collected from 334 residents at coastal tourist destinations in Karnataka, India. A convenience sampling technique was employed. The responses were analysed employing PLS-SEM and a disjoint two-stage approach using SmartPLS 4 software. The findings confirm both direct and indirect positive relations between empowerment and support for tourism. The results show that residents’ attitude towards tourism and trust in tourism organisations partially mediates the relationship between empowerment and support for tourism development. In addition, the study also validates the higher-order nature of empowerment, providing a better understanding of the empowerment process. This study provides a novel view of the empowerment process with residents’ attitudes towards tourism and trust in organisations as mediators. This provides a new perspective for tourism developers on empowering residents and gaining their support. The results enhance the theoretical understanding of the empowerment process and offer novel insights to tourism developers and policymakers.