The influence of place attachment and emotional solidarity on residents’ involvement in tourism: perspectives from Orlando, Florida

Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model as a theoretical guide, this study employed a conceptual model involving residents’ place attachment (S) to the destination in which they live and emotional solidarity with tourists (O) as precursors to their involvement in tourism (R). The purpose of this paper is threefold: To determine (1) whether residents’ place attachment explains their emotional solidarity with tourists, (2) if emotional solidarity is an effective predictor of residents’ involvement in tourism planning and development and (3) if emotional solidarity dimensions mediate the relationship between place attachment and involvement.

Data were collected from 378 permanent resident heads of households living in, or adjacent to, central Orlando, using a self-administered survey with a census-guided systematic sampling method. Data were subjected to tests of normality and common method bias, followed by a two-step confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

Seven of the 11 proposed model hypotheses were supported, with moderate variances explained in each of the four outcome variables: welcoming nature (R² = 19.3%), emotional closeness (R² = 24.5%), sympathetic understanding (R² = 39.4%) and involvement (R² = 36.8%). Though both place identity and place dependence (as two dimensions of place attachment) were partial mediators, the former proved to be more pronounced.

This study employed non-economic measures—place attachment and emotional solidarity—in determining residents’ involvement in tourism within their community. Such an approach provides fresh insights into how such symbolic constructs can contribute to residents’ positive, actionable involvement in tourism. This research is one of the few that have incorporated emotional solidarity as a construct within the SOR model and the first to examine the indirect effects (through mediation) of emotional solidarity.