Balancing Benefits and Costs: Host Community Perceptions, Personal Gains, and Support for Sustainable Tourism Development

The quality of life of a host community residing in a tourist destination is significantly influenced by the consequences of tourism development in the region. Such development generates both positive impacts, such as benefits, and negative impacts, or costs, simultaneously. The main aim of the study was to analyse the relationship between residents’ perception of tourism’s dual impact (positive and negative) on the host community and their attitude towards sustainable tourism development in the Krishna-Braj Tourism Circuit in the province of Uttar Pradesh of India. The study also examined the nature of the relationship between personal benefits drawn from tourism development and residents’ perception of tourism’s dual impact on the host community. The social exchange theory served as the foundation of the study. The tourism sustainability framework, which includes three pillars, viz., economic, environmental, and socio-cultural tourism impacts, was used to analyse the dual impact of tourism on residents in the region. In total, 370 residents were identified using a proportionate quota sampling technique and interviewed. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed theoretical model and to examine the hypothesised relationship between study variables. The study found that residents drawing personal benefits from tourism development (such as income, job, socialisation, etc.) in the region tend to perceive tourism impacts positively and show supportive attitudes toward sustainable tourism development in the region. At the same time, the influence of personal benefits from tourism development on perceived negative impacts was found not significant. Additionally, positive perceived tourism impacts significantly shaped residents’ attitudes, while the expected negative influence of negative tourism impacts on attitudes was unsupported. In a nutshell, the study supports that the bene-fits residents derive from tourism strongly shape their perceptions and support sustainable tourism development in the region.