Abstract:
Tourism impacts and its influence on community engagement in tourism is well
researched in the literature. However, situational factors can distort the link
between tourism impacts and community engagement in tourism. The purpose
of this study is to understand the perceived tourism impacts and its influence on
community intention to engage in tourism during the COVID-19 by measuring
the moderating effect of COVID- 19 on the influence of tourism impacts on
tourism engagement. Data were collected in December 2020 using a structured
questionnaire with 7-point Likert scaled items from the surrounding community
of the Udawalawa National Park applying a purposive sampling technique in
which the people engaging in tourism were focused. An exploratory factor
analysis was conducted with a sample size of 200, and based on that, seven
independent variables were identified namely positive environmental impact,
negative environmental impact, positive social impact, negative social impact,
positive cultural impact, negative social impact, and positive economic impact.
Multiple regression analysis revealed that all the positive forms of tourism
impacts have significant effects on intention to engage in tourism while the
effects of negative forms of tourism impacts are found to be insignificant. The
testing of the moderation effect of COVID-19 discovered that the effect of
positive economic impacts of tourism on intention to engage in tourism is
negatively moderated by COVID-19. According to the results, it can be
concluded that the positive tourism impacts perceived by the community still
encourage them to engage in tourism. However, the COVID-19 situation has
reduced the intensity of perceived economic benefits on tourism engagement
showing that the people are now unconfident in tourism as a livelihood.
Furthermore, the findings add to the existing literature of tourism impacts by
giving more insights regarding situational factors like COVID-19. In terms of
managerial implications, the results can help formulate plans to regain the
tourism industry in new-normal.
