Using Destination Image and Place Attachment to Explore Support for Tourism Development: The Case of Tourism Versus Non-tourism Employees in EILAT

Abstract

Apart from the economic motive, little attention has been given to factors such as destination image and place attachment in explaining how potential differences in intentional behavior (support for tourism, intention to recommend) develop between tourism employees and non-tourism employees in a community. This study, conducted in the remote resort of Eilat, explores whether these resident groups’ representations of and attachment to their place shape their intentional behavior toward tourism, and tests the explanatory ability of the two factors to account for potential differences in groups’ intentional behavior. Findings suggest that the relationships between: (a) place attachment and destination image, (b) place attachment and intention to recommend, and (c) between destination image and intention to recommend, vary across the two groups. The study contributes to tourism theory by empirically validating the role of image and attachment as antecedent of such differentiation. Additional implications to tourism theory and practice are discussed.