Factors Influencing Local Resident Support for Tourism Development: A Structural Equation Model 1

The objective of this article is to study the causal relationship between a destination’s tourism potential, the impact of tourism, and local resident support for tourism development in four tourist destinations in Thailand: Phuket, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, and Pai. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to analyze the data (sample size of 1,367). The model contains 15 observable variables; four external 1 Best Paper Award in The APTA Conference 2010 at Macau, China between 13-16 July 2010.