The Effects of Place Attachment and Emotional Solidarity on Community Residents’ Attitudes toward Glacier Tourism

Abstract

The perceptions and attitudes of community residents are a “mirror” of tourism development. Little research has been conducted on the effects of place attachment and emotional solidarity on community residents’ attitudes toward tourism in China’s glacier tourism-related areas. In this paper, we selected the southernmost marine glacier in China, Hailuogou Glacier Forest Park, as a case study, and constructed a structural equation model of residents’ tourism perceptions and attitudes based on 358 valid questionnaires obtained from fieldwork. We analyzed the logical connection and influencing relationship between place attachment, residents’ perceptions (residents’ benefits and environmental perceptions), and community residents’ attitudes (security, support, satisfaction), and explored countermeasures and suggestions for building a harmonious host–customer relationship in the Hailuogou area to improve glacier tourism. The results of the study show that the influence of place attachment and residents’ perceptions on emotional solidarity is different from the degree of influence of emotional solidarity on residents’ tourism attitudes, with the most significant positive influence of place attachment on emotional solidarity and the greatest influence of emotional solidarity on sense of security. Emotional solidarity had a certain mediating effect between place attachment, residents’ perceptions, and residents’ tourism attitudes. Significantly, emotional solidarity had the most fully mediated effect between place attachment and support, reaching 73.61%. The moderating effect of place attachment reflects that the higher the place attachment, the weaker the correlation between residents’ perceptions and residents’ tourism attitudes. Meanwhile, residents’ tourism attitudes will weaken their influence with the increase in emotional solidarity. Based on the above results, relevant suggestions are made to provide a theoretical basis and decision-making reference for the development and management of glacier tourism destinations.

1. Introduction

Glacier tourism is a tourism activity carried out in regions with glaciers, and includes activities such as sightseeing, expeditions, scientific investigation, and scientific education; thus, compared with traditional forms of tourism, glacier tourism uses scarce and fragile resources, has a high concentration of activities, and combines entertainment, aesthetics, and science into one [1]. As one of the service functions of the cryosphere, glacier tourism and its chain production industry play an important role in increasing regional economic revenue, enhancing regional tourism connotation and visibility, and promoting sustainable regional economic development [2]. Glacier tourism is also an important part of studying regional vulnerability. The 24th Beijing Winter Olympic Games in 2022 drove 346 million people to participate in ice and snow sports, greatly promoting the implementation of China’s ice and snow sports southward and westward expansion and eastward strategy and promoting the development of the ice and snow tourism industry, which has become one of the important paths to achieve high-quality development in China. Due to the significant boosting effect of glacier tourism on regional socio-economic development, it has received attention from domestic and international academic circles since the 1980s. In the 21st century, glacier tourism research has been developing rapidly, and the number of research results has increased significantly. In addition to investigating the concept and connotation of glacier tourism [3], the literature has extensively explored the potential of glacier tourism resource development from the perspective of development, layout, management, socio-economic effects [4,5], and the impact on and response to glacier tourism from the perspective of global change [6]. While tourists, as a key component of glacier tourism (along with itineraries and destinations), have received high attention in recent years, and a number of research results on tourist sources and tourists’ perceptions and satisfaction with tourist destinations have emerged [7,8], little research has been carried out on the perceptions and attitudes of residents in glacier tourism destinations.

As hosts of glacier tourism destinations, community residents’ production and living scenes are an important part of a destination’s glacier tourism attraction. Resident attitudes toward tourism are an important factor affecting the quality of a tourist’s experience, and how to better promote residents’ active participation in tourism development is an important issue of academic concern [9]. The current research on resident attitudes toward tourism is mainly based on the social exchange theory framework [10]. Some scholars have argued that this view has limitations [11] and have proposed to integrate social exchange theory with related theories (e.g., emotional solidarity theory) to better explain residents’ support for tourism [12]. Woosnam introduced emotional solidarity theory into tourism research, and the theory has now been used to study residents’ dynamic and complex emotions towards tourists [13], and residents’ emotional solidarity towards tourists helps to increase residents’ support for tourism development [14]. It has been pointed out that residents’ perceptions are an important variable in measuring attitudes toward tourism development [15] and that residents’ attitudes are not only related to the perception of tourism impact, but also closely related to residents’ emotions toward place, i.e., place attachment [16]. Accordingly, this paper attempts to combine social exchange theory, place attachment theory and emotional solidarity theory to explore community residents’ attitudes toward glacier tourism.

This paper selects a typical marine glacier in China, Hailuogou Glacier Forest Park, as the study area, and constructs the “place attachment, residents’ perceptions, emotional solidarity” model based on emotional solidarity theory, place attachment, and social exchange theory, which complements and improves the existing measurement scales. The structural equation model of “community residents’ attitudes towards glacier tourism (security, support, satisfaction)” is constructed to explore the influence of place attachment and resident perceptions on community resident attitudes towards glacier tourism (security, support, satisfaction) and their interrelationship. This is expected to provide a decision reference and path selection for tourism authorities to build a harmonious host–client relationship, promote glacier tourism in Hailuogou, and provide a basis and reference for the sustainable development of the regional economy by proposing glacier tourism development strategies and enriching the research on glacier tourism resident perceptions.

2. Theory Basis and Research Hypothesis

In this paper, a typical Hailuogou glacier scenic area in China was selected as the study area, and, based on emotional solidarity theory, place attachment theory and social exchange theory, a structural equation model was used to investigate the influence of place attachment and perceptions on community residents’ attitudes toward glacier tourism, with emotional solidarity as the mediating variable.

2.1. Theory Basis

2.1.1. Social Exchange Theory

Social exchange theory explains social behavior from the perspective of benefits and costs; exchange behavior occurs when individual benefits outweigh costs, and vice versa it does not occur. Thus, residents tend to support tourism development when they perceive that the benefits of tourism are greater than the costs of tourism; when they perceive that the costs are greater than the benefits, they tend to have negative perceptions of tourism development, which in turn hinders tourism development [17,18]. In recent years, trust and power have also been introduced into social exchange theory, where residents’ trust in government actions and perceived benefits determine their support for tourism development [19]. With the in-depth research on tourism impact perceptions and attitudes, studies have found that harmonious community interpersonal relationships, people–place relationships, and the quality of community–resident relationships also strengthen residents’ perceptions of tourism benefits and weaken tourism cost perceptions [20,21]. This theory has been widely used in studies on tourism impact perceptions and attitudes [22] and tourism development support [12].

2.1.2. Place Attachment Theory

“Place attachment” was first proposed by the geographer Tuan [23] and refers to the special emotional connection and relationship between people and places, which is also expressed as “sense of place”, i.e., the attributes of the place itself and people’s attachment to the place [24]. The most classic division of the dimensional components of place attachment is the “two-dimensional theory”, in which Williams et al. argue that the dimensions of place attachment are divided into place dependence and place identity [25,26], and this division is widely used in the study of place attachment of residents. Place dependence is mainly motivated by users’ need for and dependence on its function [27], reflecting its environmental service capacity, and usually showing the support of local resources, facilities, etc. in meeting personal goals and activity behaviors in the context of cross-sectional comparisons [28], i.e., functional attachment. Place identity mainly refers to the emotional attachment formed by an individual or community in the lived experience of a place, including conscious–unconscious thoughts, beliefs, wishes, feelings, values, goals, and behavioral tendencies [29,30], and internalizes the place as an integral part of the self, thus achieving self-identity.

2.1.3. Theory of Emotional Solidarity

Emotional solidarity, proposed by Turgot [31], is a relational bond characterized by intimate emotions and deep interactions [32]. In tourism research, emotional solidarity is mainly used to study the host–guest relationship, i.e., the relationship between residents and tourists. In terms of the resident perspective, the antecedents of resident emotional solidarity with tourists are the focus of study [31], and emotional solidarity is divided into three dimensions: welcome, emotional intimacy, and sympathetic understanding [33]. In recent years, the academic community has begun to focus on the impact of residents’ emotional solidarity with tourists on attitudes toward tourism development. Studies have found that the three dimensions of emotional solidarity play different roles in influencing resident attitudes toward community tourism development, but all are important factors influencing resident support for tourism development [34]. Woosnam et al. have found that the emotional solidarity between residents and tourists affects residents’ attitudes toward tourism, and the higher the level of emotional solidarity between residents and tourists, the more supportive of tourism development [13].

2.2. Key Concepts and Research Hypotheses

Local sentiment is an important antecedent variable influencing the emotional solidarity of hosts (residents) and guests (tourists) [31], and local emotions are an important antecedent variable influencing the emotional solidarity between hosts and tourists [35]. The degree of emotional solidarity with tourists can reflect the residents’ emotions towards the place, and the stronger the attachment of residents to the local community as the basic component unit of the place, the easier it is to develop emotional closeness with tourists [36]. Nostalgia and fondness are the emotional resonance between residents and tourists towards places [31], and the stronger the positive feelings of residents towards places, the easier it is to form emotional solidarity with tourists. Suess et al. showed that there is a significant positive influence relationship between residents’ positive emotions towards a place and the emotional solidarity between residents and tourists [37].

Residents’ perceptions are subjective perceptions of changes in the human–place relationship and physical environment in the development of tourism in their own living space [38]. In this paper, resident perceptions are divided into benefit perceptions and environmental perceptions, and one study found that resident benefits have a positive and significant effect on emotional solidarity [39] and that positive resident environmental perceptions have a direct positive effect on emotional solidarity between residents and tourists.

Community resident attitudes refer to residents’ intentions to support tourism development [40]; three dimensions, including perception of security, support, and satisfaction, are included in this. In the security, Woosnam et al. constructed an emotional solidarity–security perception model for tourists and residents, in which all three dimensions of emotional solidarity (welcome, emotional closeness, and empathetic understanding) had a positive effect on perception of security. In the support, residents’ emotional solidarity with tourists significantly influences their supportive attitudes toward tourism development [41]. In the satisfaction, satisfaction is a comprehensive psychological indicator of a person’s quality of life [16]. Residents’ emotional solidarity with tourists can be considered as a positive emotion, and an increase in an individual’s daily positive emotional experiences can enhance individual satisfaction [42]. When the host and client interact in a kind of friendship relationship, community residents gain psychological recognition and satisfaction, which facilitates the stimulation of positive emotions and thus enhances their satisfaction [43].

Based on the above theoretical basis and key concepts, we propose the following model of resident perceptions and attitudes towards tourism (Figure 1) and hypothesize the following:

 Hypothesis 1 (H1). 

Place attachment has a positive effect on emotional solidarity.

 Hypothesis 2 (H2). 

Resident benefit has a positive effect on emotional solidarity.

 Hypothesis 3 (H3). 

Environmental perception has a positive effect on emotional solidarity.

 Hypothesis 4 (H4). 

Emotional solidarity has a positive effect on perception of security.

 Hypothesis 5 (H5). 

Emotional solidarity has a positive effect on support.

 Hypothesis 6 (H6). 

Emotional solidarity has a positive effect on satisfaction.

3. Data and Methodology

3.1. Location and Data Collection

After a pre-survey in July 2021, the questionnaire used in this research was improved according to the feedback from the management and residents of the scenic area. The survey was carried out in 8 communities, including Old Street community, Zandi Village, Mogangling Village, Republican Village, Bai Yangping Village, Yanzigou Village, Xinxing Village, and Dashanshu Village (Figure 2). In order to ensure the quality of the questionnaire, the surveys took a “one-to-one” approach with on-site distribution and recovery. A total of 378 questionnaires were distributed and 358 valid questionnaires were collected, with an efficiency rate of 94.71%.

3.2. Survey

The questionnaire consisted of 3 parts: (1) Traditional demographic questions, including gender, age, education, ethnicity, main occupation, and length of residence. (2) Questions on place attachment (A) [44,45], resident benefits (B), environmental perception (C) [46,47], emotional solidarity (D) [14,31], and attitudes toward tourism development (E, F, and G) [31,37,48,49], which contain 7 dimensions of latent variables and 28 observed variables. The variables draw on other tools to construct a scale for measuring residents’ tourism perceptions and attitudes (

Table A1. Resident Tourism Perception and Attitude Measurement Scale.

Tier 1 Indicators	Latent Variable	Question Items	Observed Variable	Source
Place Attachment	Place Attachment	A1	My current place of residence is the best place to do what I love	[44,45]
		A2	My current place of residence is important to me
		A3	My current place of residence is the best place for me to live
		A4	I feel more satisfied living where I live than anywhere else
Resident Perception	Residents Benefit	B1	Developing glacier tourism has increased my job opportunities	[46,47]
		B2	Developing glacier tourism has increased my knowledge
		B3	Developing glacier tourism has improved my social status
		B4	The development of glacier tourism has improved the local transportation situation
		B5	The development of glacier tourism promotes the heritage of our local culture
	Environmental Perception	C1	Glacier tourism development does not damage the local natural landscape	[46,47]
		C2	Glacier tourism development did not break my original quiet life
		C3	Glacier tourism development did not cause the local ecological environment to deteriorate
		C4	Glacier tourism development has not led to more garbage and pollution in the area
Emotional Solidarity	Emotional Solidarity	D1	I am happy that tourists come to my neighborhood	[14,31]
		D2	tourists contribute to the development of the area
		D3	I treat tourists equally
		D4	I enjoy communicating with tourists
Residents’ Attitude towards Tourism	Security	E1	Few crimes are committed by tourists	[37]
		E2	tourists do not cause me apprehension or anxiety
		E3	tourists are friendly and respectful of local customs and traditions
		E4	The quality of tourists is generally high
	Support	F1	I am very supportive of the development of local glacier tourism	[31,48]
		F2	I hope that the local glacier tourism will develop more and more
		F3	I hope more tourists will come to visit
	Satisfaction	G1	I am satisfied with the current state of development of local glacier tourism	[49]
		G2	I am more satisfied with the development of local glacier tourism than other places
		G3	The current situation of local glacier tourism development meets my expectation
		G4	The local glacier tourism development has great potential

), using a 5-point Likert scale with the following options: “very dissatisfied”, “dissatisfied”, “average”, “satisfied”, and “very satisfied”. (3) The glacier tourism development and resident participation, including the development of scenic spots, the number of post-epidemic glacier tourism changes, the income obtained by participating in glacier tourism, the form and method of glacier tourism participation, constraints, development countermeasures, and another ten issues.

3.3. Sample Characteristics

The overall sample gender ratio was about 1:1, with 50.28% males and 49.72% females, in line with the requirements of the data collection. The most common age group was 31~55 years old (62.85%), most common occupation was self-employed (44.13%), and most common education level was junior high school (40.50%) (

Table 1. Basic characteristics of sample population.

Variable	Category	Number	Percentage
Gender	Male	180	50.28
	Female	178	49.72
Age (years)	Under 18	22	6.15
	18–30	83	23.18
	31–40	102	28.49
	41–55	123	34.36
	56 or older	28	7.82
Occupation	Government official	12	3.35
	Individual	158	44.13
	Working people	59	16.48
	Farmers or herdsmen	73	20.39
	Landscape service	23	6.42
	Student	27	7.54
	Other	6	1.68
Education	Grade school	78	21.79
	Junior High School	145	40.50
	High school	81	22.63
	College	54	15.08

). Thus, the participants formed a main group of community residents involved in the development of glacier tourism.

3.4. Model

A structural equation model (SEM) is a multivariate model that combines the measurement nature of factor analysis with the regression modeling nature of path analysis and incorporates multiple statistical methods. The total, direct, and indirect effects between exogenous latent variables and endogenous latent variables are understood. Since SEM contains both measurement and structural models, and integrates multiple regression analysis, factor analysis, and path analysis, and because it also has the advantage of supporting the use of some exogenous indicators to measure psychological and perceptual latent variables that are difficult to measure accurately by traditional methods, it is widely used in studies of tourism perception, tourism satisfaction, and attitudes toward tourism development [50]. Therefore, in this paper, SEM was selected to construct a structural equation model of the influence of attitudes toward glacier tourism among the community residents of Hailuogou Glacier Forest Park based on the six hypotheses above.

First, a database covering 358 samples was established using SPSS 25.0 (International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), IBM headquarters in Almonk, New York, NY, USA); second, exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the scale and the data were imported into AMOS 23.0 (International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), IBM headquarters in Almonk, New York, USA) to construct a structural equation model, and the maximum likelihood method was used to conduct validated factor analysis on the model to reflect the exogenous latent variables (place attachment, resident benefit, environmental perception) and the endogenous latent variables (emotion, solidarity, security, support, and satisfaction). The relationship between the exogenous and the endogenous latent variables was reflected by the path coefficients, and the degree of association between the exogenous and endogenous latent variables was reflected by the absolute values of the paths. Using the Process 3.3 macro plug-in Model4 in SPSS 25.0 (International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), IBM headquarters in Almonk, New York, USA), possible mediating effects between residents’ place attachment, perceptions, and attitudes toward tourism were explored. Finally, place attachment was used as a moderating variable in SPSS 25.0 to test whether place attachment has a moderating effect on the relationship between residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward tourism, and emotional solidarity and residents’ attitudes toward tourism.

4. SEM Construction

4.1. The Construction of the Index System of Residents’ Perception and Attitude towards Tourism

SPSS25.0 was used to conduct exploratory factor analysis on 28 indicators of residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward tourism. The overall sampling fit test KMO value was 0.937, which meant the sample was suitable for further factor analysis. Factor loadings of 0.5 were used as the cut-off point to determine the factors and factor loadings of less than 0.5 were excluded from the item “I like to communicate with tourists”. Seven common factors were extracted to construct the perception and attitude index system in this paper (

Table A2. Resident perception and attitude evaluation index system.

Observed Variable	Factor Load							Cronbach’s α
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
A1. My current place of residence is the best place to do what I love	—	—	0.676	—	—	—	—	0.859
A2. My current place of residence is important to me	—	—	0.781	—	—	—	—
A3. My current place of residence is the best place for me to live	—	—	0.760	—	—	—	—
A4. I feel more satisfied living where I live than anywhere else	—	—	0.751	—	—	—	—
B1. Developing glacier tourism has increased my job opportunities	—	—	—	—	0.610	—	—	0.820
B2. Developing glacier tourism has increased my knowledge	—	—	—	—	0.726	—	—
B3. Developing glacier tourism has improved my social status	—	—	—	—	0.750	—	—
B4. The development of glacier tourism has improved the local transportation situation	—	—	—	—	0.561	—	—
B5. The development of glacier tourism promotes the heritage of our local culture	—	—	—	—	0.609	—	—
C1. Glacier tourism development does not damage the local natural landscape	—	0.782	—	—	—	—	—	0.857
C2. Glacier tourism development did not break my original quiet life	—	0.747	—	—	—	—	—
C3. Glacier tourism development did not cause the local ecological environment to deteriorate	—	0.787	—	—	—	—	—
C4. Glacier tourism development has not led to more garbage and pollution in the area	—	0.686	—	—	—	—	—
D1. I am happy that tourists come to my neighborhood	0.657	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.841
D2. tourists contribute to the development of the area	0.559	—	—	—	—	—	—
D3. I treat tourists equally	0.684	—	—	—	—	—	—
D4. I enjoy communicating with tourists	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
E1. Few crimes are committed by tourists	—	—	—	—	—	0.610		0.799
E2. tourists do not cause me apprehension or anxiety	—	—	—	—	—	0.644
E3. tourists are friendly and respectful of local customs and traditions	—	—	—	—	—	0.654
E4. The quality of tourists is generally high	—	—	—	—	—	0.661
F1. I am very supportive of the development of local glacier tourism	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.762	0.901
F2. I hope that the local glacier tourism will develop more and more	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.807
F3. I hope more tourists will come to visit	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.822
G1. I am satisfied with the current state of development of local glacier tourism	—	—	—	0.732	—	—	—	0.886
G2. I am more satisfied with the development of local glacier tourism than other places	—	—	—	0.797	—	—	—
G3. The current situation of local glacier tourism development meets my expectation	—	—	—	0.771	—	—	—
G4. The local glacier tourism development has great potential	—	—	—	0.560	—	—	—
Note: KMO = 0.937, Cronbach’s a = 0.945, contribution of 7 common factors = 67.587%

). Cronbach’s a was greater than 0.799, so the reliability of the structure of the seven common factors was good, followed by the overall Cronbach’s a of 0.945 for the sample. Thus, the questionnaire content showed high reliability and internal consistency, which could be further tested by validation factor analysis on the extracted residents’ perceptions and attitudes toward tourism model.

4.2. Construction of a Model of Residents’ Perceptions and Attitudes towards Tourism

Based on the resident tourism perceptions and attitudes index system established above, a resident tourism perceptions and attitudes model was constructed using AMOS 23.0, and validation factor analysis was carried out to test its validity and goodness of fit. The convergent validity of the measurement model requires the standard loadings to be above 0.5 to reach the significance level.

Table 2. Validation factor analysis.

Variable	Latent Variable	Observed Variable	β	AVE	CR
exogenous latent variables	Place Attachment	A1	0.72 ***	0.609	0.862
		A2	0.82 ***
		A3	0.79 ***
		A4	0.78 ***
	Residents Benefit	B1	0.72 ***	0.501	0.827
		B2	0.76 ***
		B3	0.65 ***
		B4	0.70 ***
		B5	0.65 ***
	Environmental Perception	C1	0.73 ***	0.607	0.86
		C2	0.78 ***
		C3	0.83 ***
		C4	0.78 ***
endogenous latent variables	Emotional Solidarity	D1	0.77 ***	0.553	0.789
		D2	0.68 ***
		D3	0.78 ***
	Security	E1	0.69 ***	0.506	0.802
		E2	0.76 ***
		E3	0.77 ***
		E4	0.61 ***
	Support	F1	0.82 ***	0.762	0.905
		F2	0.90 ***
		F3	0.89 ***
	Satisfaction	G1	0.79 ***	0.667	0.889
		G2	0.86 ***
		G3	0.86 ***
		G4	0.76 ***

Note: * indicates p < 0.05; ** indicates p < 0.01; *** indicates p < 0.001.

shows that the standard loadings of the 28 indicators are between 0.610 and 0.902 and the average variance extracted (AVE) values of each latent variable are between 0.501 and 0.762, and thus the questionnaire content has good convergent validity. The combined reliability CR is greater than 0.8 and the convergent validity is ideal, indicating that the constructed model fits well. Meanwhile, the cardinal degrees of freedom CMIN/DF, AGFI, RMSEA, CFI, IFI, TLI, AIC, and CAIC were selected to test the goodness of fit of the model. The cardinal degrees of freedom CMIN/DF was 2.225, which was between the ideal values of 1–3, and AGFI (0.890) generally should be >0.90, and it is acceptable if it is close to 0.90. RMSEA (0.063) is less than 0.1; CFI (0.932), IFI (0.932), and TLI (0.924) are greater than 0.9; and AIC (826.929) and CAIC (1134.403) meet the ‘smaller is better’ requirement (

Table 3. Goodness of fit index of model.

Indicator Type	Indicator Name	Adaptation Standards	Fitting Result	Judgement
Absolute fit index	CMN/DF	1~3	2.225	Support
	AGFI	>0.90	0.890	Generally >0.90 is required, if close to 0.90 is acceptable
	RESEA	<0.80	0.059	Support
Relative fit index	CFI	>0.90	0.932	Support
	IFI	>0.90	0.932	Support
	TLI	>0.90	0.924	Support
Streamlined fit index	AIC	The smaller the better	826.929	Support
	CAIC	The smaller the better	1134.403	Support

). This shows that the seven metric factor structure fits well.

Based on the above analysis, a model of residents’ tourism perceptions and attitudes (Figure 3) and the model-fitted path coefficients (

Table 4. Model fitting path coefficient.

Path	β	S.E.	p	Hypothetical Results
Place Attachment→Emotional Solidarity	0.33	0.066	***	H1 established
Residents Benefit→Emotional Solidarity	0.24	0.078	**	H2 established
Environmental Perception→Emotional Solidarity	0.28	0.055	***	H3 established
Emotional Solidarity→Security	0.83	0.073	***	H4 established
Emotional Solidarity→Support	0.80	0.061	***	H5 established
Emotional Solidarity→Satisfaction	0.78	0.067	***	H6 established

Note: * indicates p < 0.05; ** indicates p < 0.01; *** indicates p < 0.001.

) were obtained. Figure 3 shows that the Pearson correlation coefficients between place attachment and resident benefit, resident benefit and environmental perception, and place attachment and environmental perception are 0.72, 0.68, and 0.57, respectively. The Pearson correlation coefficient is generally required to be less than or close to 0.70, indicating that the exogenous latent variables pass the covariance diagnosis, indicating that the observed variables can reflect the corresponding exogenous latent variables. The standardized path coefficient β reflects the significance of the effects between the constructs of the model, and, as seen in Table 4, the p-values between the three exogenous latent variables and emotional solidarity and the four endogenous latent variables are significant. Thus, all six hypotheses proposed in the paper are verified.

5. Results

5.1. Analysis of the Relationship between Place Attachment, Resident Perception, and Emotional Solidarity

Place attachment, resident benefit, and environmental perception all had a positive effect on emotional solidarity. Among the three exogenous latent variables, place attachment had the largest effect on emotional solidarity with a standardized path coefficient β of 0.33, reaching a significance level of p < 0.001, environmental perception had a relatively weaker effect on emotional solidarity with β of 0.28 (p < 0.001), and resident benefit had the weakest relative effect on emotional solidarity with β of only 0.24 (p < 0.01) (Table 4).

There was a significant positive effect of the observed variables A1, A2, A3, and A4 on the place attachment latent variable (Figure 3). The β of all four observed variables was relatively high, above 0.70, with the A2 variable having the highest β of 0.82, indicating that the importance of the place of residence to residents significantly influenced residents’ overall evaluation of the place attachment dimension; the A1 variable had a lower β of 0.72, indicating that the ability of residents to do their favorite things at their place of residence had a relatively small effect on the overall evaluation of the place attachment dimension; the A3 and A4 variables had β values between A1 and A2, of 0.79 and 0.78, respectively, which reflected residents’ relatively large evaluations of the place attachment dimension.

The five observed variables, B1, B2, B3, B4, and B5, all had a significant positive effect on the latent variable of resident benefit. B1, B2, and B4 variables had higher β, all greater than 0.7 (Figure 3), indicating that the development of glacier tourism will increase local residents’ job opportunities and insight and improve local transportation, while B3 and B5 variables had lower β, both at 0.65, indicating that the development of glacier tourism will help improve residents’ social status and promote local cultural heritage, but, relative to B1, B2, and B4 variables, the overall evaluation of resident benefit perception dimension had a relatively small impact.

The observed variables C1, C2, C3, and C4 all had a significant positive effect on the environmental perception latent variable. The β of these four observed variables was relatively high, all above 0.70. The β of C3 was the largest at 0.83, indicating that the C3 variable has the greatest influence on the overall evaluation of the environmental perception dimension; the β of C1 variable was relatively low at 0.73, indicating that the C1 variable has a relatively small influence on the overall evaluation of the environmental perception dimension. The β of C2 and C4 variables were both 0.78, which is between the C3 and C1 variables, indicating that their influence on the overall evaluation of the environmental perception dimension is at an intermediate level.

In summary, at the level of exogenous latent variables, the influence of the attachment of the residents to the place of tourism on the emotional solidarity of the host and the guest is the largest, indicating that residents can directly show their emotional solidarity with tourists through their sense of attachment to the place of residence. Although the local residents can benefit from glacier tourism, the influence of resident benefit on the emotional solidarity of the host and the guest is the weakest. In terms of specific variables, variables A2, B2, and C3 are the key variables that influence the evaluation of place attachment, resident benefit perception, and resident environment perception dimensions, respectively.

5.2. Analysis of the Relationship between Emotional Solidarity and Residents’ Attitudes toward Tourism

Host–guest emotional solidarity has a significant positive effect on residents’ attitudes toward tourism (sense of security, support, and satisfaction). Table 4 shows that the β values of emotional solidarity on sense of security, support, and satisfaction were 0.83 (p < 0.001), 0.80 (p < 0.001), and 0.78 (p < 0.001), respectively, which are all greater than 0.7. The effects of emotional solidarity on sense of security, support, and satisfaction are all highly significant, but the effects on sense of security are the greatest and the effects on support and satisfaction are somewhat decreased.

The D1, D2, and D3 observed variables all had significant positive effects on the emotional solidarity latent variable. Among them, D1 and D3 variables had a larger β on emotional solidarity, with values of 0.77 and 0.78, respectively, indicating that the residents’ acceptance of tourists and whether they treat them equally have a greater impact on the overall evaluation of emotional solidarity dimension.

The observed variables E1, E2, E3, and E4 all had a significant positive effect on the sense of security. The E2 and E3 variables had high β values greater than 0.7, while the E1 and E4 variables had relatively small β values of 0.69 and 0.61, respectively. This indicates that the E2 and E3 variables have a greater impact on the overall evaluation of residents’ sense of security dimension than E1 and E4.

The three observed variables F1, F2, and F3 had a significant positive effect on the support latent variable. The β values of these three observed variables were all relatively high, ranging from 0.82 to 0.90. This indicates that whether residents support the development of local glacier tourism, whether they want local glacier tourism to develop more, and whether they want more tourists to come to visit all significantly affect the overall evaluation of the support dimension.

The β values for G1, G2, G3, and G4 were all above 0.70, and the G2 and G3 variables reached 0.86, indicating that all four observed variables have an influence on the overall evaluation of the satisfaction dimension, and that the G2 and G3 variables have a relatively greater influence.

In conclusion, as far as the endogenous latent variables are concerned, the emotional solidarity between the host and the customer has a greater impact on the residents’ sense of security, support, and satisfaction, especially on the sense of security, indicating that when the host and the customer interact in a kind of friendship relationship, the community residents will gain psychological recognition and satisfaction. This kind of positive interaction, emotional fit, and mutual recognition between the host and the customer can stimulate the positive emotions of the residents, which in turn will enhance the residents’ sense of security and the residents’ intention to support tourism development. At the level of observed variables, D1 and D3 and E2 and E3 are the key variables affecting emotional solidarity and residents’ sense of security, respectively. F1, F2, and F3 all have significant effects on residents’ support, while residents’ satisfaction is mainly influenced by G2 and G3.

5.3. Analysis of the Mediating Effects of Emotional Solidarity

The above analysis shows that emotional solidarity is the link between place attachment, residents’ perceptions, and residents’ attitudes toward tourism. To further analyze the logical connection between these, we used the bootstrap method recommended by Hayes to test whether there was a mediating effect [51]. The sample size was set to 5000 and if the upper and lower limits of the 95% confidence interval did not contain 0, the effect existed. When both the direct and mediating effects exist, it is a partial full mediating effect; when the direct effect does not exist and the mediating effect exists, it is a full mediating effect. The test results found that there was a mediating effect of emotional solidarity between place attachment, residents’ perceptions, and residents’ attitudes toward tourism (

Table 5. Results of total effect, direct effect and mediating effect.

Type		Effect	Mediating Effect (%)	SE	95% Confidence Interval		Judgement
					BootULCI	BootLLCI
Place Attachment	Total effect	0.409	56.94	0.032	0.346	0.471	Support
→Emotional Solidarity	Direct effect	0.180		0.030	0.122	0.238	Support
→Residents’ Attitude towards Tourism	Indirect effect	0.229		0.039	0.155	0.311	Support
Resident Perception	Total effect	0.546	45.22	0.034	0.479	0.612	Support
→Emotional Solidarity	Direct effect	0.294		0.033	0.229	0.360	Support
→Residents’ Attitude towards Tourism	Indirect effect	0.251		0.042	0.171	0.333	Support
Place Attachment	Total effect	0.444	45.21	0.039	0.368	0.520	Support
→Emotional Solidarity	Direct effect	0.243		0.041	0.1627	0.323	Support
→Security	Indirect effect	0.201		0.038	0.127	0.277	Support
Place Attachment	Total effect	0.344	73.61	0.037	0.272	0.417	Support
→Emotional Solidarity	Direct effect	0.091		0.035	0.021	0.160	Not Support
→Support	Indirect effect	0.254		0.049	0.164	0.354	Support
Place Attachment	Total effect	0.422	56.56	0.041	0.341	0.502	Support
→Emotional Solidarity	Direct effect	0.183		0.042	0.101	0.266	Support
→Satisfaction	Indirect effect	0.238		0.041	0.162	0.322	Support
Resident Perception	Total effect	0.612	33.11	0.042	0.530	0.694	Support
→Emotional Solidarity	Direct effect	0.410		0.046	0.319	0.500	Support
→Security	Indirect effect	0.203		0.043	0.123	0.293	Support
Resident Perception	Total effect	0.431	70.34	0.042	0.348	0.514	Support
→Emotional Solidarity	Direct effect	0.128		0.042	0.045	0.210	Not Support
→Support	Indirect effect	0.303		0.054	0.198	0.410	Support
Resident Perception	Total effect	0.565	46.22	0.045	0.476	0.654	Support
→Emotional Solidarity	Direct effect	0.304		0.049	0.210	0.400	Support
→Satisfaction	Indirect effect	0.261		0.046	0.176	0.354	Support

). Emotional solidarity had the largest partial mediating effect between place attachment and satisfaction at 56.56% and the smallest partial mediating effect between residents’ perceptions and security at 33.11%. The direct effect of emotional solidarity between place attachment and support was not valid with a fully mediated effect of 73.61%, and the direct effect of emotional solidarity between residents’ perceptions and support was also not valid with a fully mediated effect of 70.34%, indicating that place attachment and residents’ perceptions not only directly affect residents’ attitudes toward tourism, but also have indirect effects through the mediated transmission of emotional solidarity. Thus, the residents of glacier tourism communities will enhance positive tourism attitudes by satisfying their need for emotional solidarity with tourists based on place attachment and residents’ perceptions.

5.4. Analysis of the Moderating Effects of Place Attachment

Based on social exchange theory, exploring the moderating effect of place attachment can more rationally explain the relationship between residents’ perceptions, emotional solidarity, and residents’ attitudes toward tourism, as well as the mechanism of the formation of residents’ attitudes toward tourism. In this paper, the moderating effect of place attachment was examined by using SPSS stratified regression according to the suggestion of Wen Zhonglin and other scholars. Place attachment was set as the moderating variable, residents’ perception and emotional solidarity as independent variables, residents’ tourism attitudes as dependent variables, and residents’ perception*place attachment and emotional solidarity*place attachment as interaction terms. The standardized coefficient β of the interaction term was tested to see whether the significance level was reached, and then whether the moderating effect was significant; the positive or negative coefficient β reflected the positive or negative moderating effect of place attachment. The results showed that the interaction term between place attachment and residents’ perceptions was significant (β = −0.069, p < 0.01), indicating that place attachment negatively moderated the relationship between residents’ perceptions and residents’ attitudes toward tourism; the higher the place attachment, the weaker the effect of residents’ perceptions on residents’ attitudes toward tourism. The interaction term between place attachment and emotional solidarity was significant (β = −0.096, p < 0.001), and place attachment also negatively moderated the relationship between residents’ attitudes toward tourism and emotional solidarity; the higher the place attachment, the weaker the effect of emotional solidarity on residents’ attitudes toward tourism (

Table 6. Results of the moderating effect test.

Variable	β	S.E.	p	95% Confidence Interval
				LLCI	ULCI
constant	8.227	0.037	***	8.155	8.299
Resident Perception	0.361	0.043	***	0.276	0.446
place attachment	0.159	0.037	***	0.087	0.231
Resident Perception × place attachment	−0.069	0.020	**	0.109	0.030
constant	8.236	0.032	***	8.174	8.298
Emotional Solidarity	0.415	0.038	***	0.340	0.490
place attachment	0.163	0.029	***	0.107	0.219
Emotional Solidarity × place attachment	−0.096	0.019	***	0.134	0.058

Note: * indicates p < 0.05; ** indicates p < 0.01; *** indicates p < 0.001.

). For residents with high place attachment, they support and participate in glacier tourism development even if they have poorer perceptions of the benefits and environmental effects brought by glacier tourism, indicating that place attachment makes residents’ expectations of perceived tourism impacts higher, i.e., residents with high place attachment expect more positive and less negative impacts of glacier tourism development for the tourism site. However, in the actual tourism development process, the perceived tourism benefits and costs are not their expected outcomes, thus showing negative tourism development attitudes.

6. Conclusions

The perceptions and attitudes of glacier tourism community residents are important prerequisites for the sustainable development of tourism sites. The generation of perceptions and attitudes of glacier tourism community residents was mainly influenced by a combination of seven dimensions: place attachment, resident benefit, environmental perception, emotional solidarity, sense of security, support, and satisfaction. In the process of participating in glacier tourism development, residents’ perceptions of the economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts of glacier tourism development through place attachment and identification with the glacier tourism site helps to evoke attachment to tourists on an emotional level, which can enhance supportive attitudes toward glacier tourism [14]. The mechanism of constructing residents’ attitudes toward tourism in glacier tourism sites, as in other tourism sites, is influenced by multiple factors: place attachment, resident benefits, and environmental perceptions.

Place attachment and resident perceptions are the main antecedent variables affecting attitudes toward emotional solidarity and tourism development. Place attachment, resident benefit, and environmental perception can directly affect emotional solidarity. Emotional solidarity, which is an antecedent variable in forming attitudes toward tourism, can directly affect security, support, and satisfaction [41]. Emotional solidarity had a mediating effect between place attachment and residents’ attitudes toward tourism, and residents’ perceptions and residents’ attitudes toward tourism. Place attachment had a moderating effect between resident perceptions, emotional solidarity, and attitudes toward tourism. When resident place attachment is higher, the correlation between resident perception and tourism attitude is weaker, while tourism attitude weakens its effect as emotional solidarity with tourists increases [39]. In this paper, based on a social survey and SEM model, we analyzed the logical connection and influencing relationships between place attachment, residents’ perceptions, emotional solidarity, and residents’ tourism attitudes from the perspective of “internal” and “external” factors, and obtained some preliminary conclusions for further work. The preliminary findings provide empirical support for further understanding the complex transmission mechanism of “place attachment, residents’ perceptions → emotional solidarity → residents’ attitudes toward tourism”.

Theoretically, this study makes contributions. Firstly, the current emotional solidarity theory explores dependent variables that are dominated by residents’ attitudes, occasionally involving security and satisfaction. This study uses emotional solidarity as a mediating variable to dissect its mechanisms on place attachment, residents’ perceptions, and residents’ tourism attitudes, which not only provides empirical support for explaining resident emotional solidarity in glacier tourism destinations, but also responds to the call that subsequent studies such as Woosnam should examine the predictive power of emotional solidarity on resident tourism attitudes [14]. Secondly, in the context of glacier tourism, the results of this study validate the applicability of emotional solidarity theory, which complements and refines the study of Woosnam et al. and enriches the model of affective solidarity constructed by Woosnam et al. [13,19]. Thus, this study’s exploration of residents’ and tourists’ emotional solidarity extends and enriches the important antecedent and consequent variables of current emotional solidarity theory research.

7. Discussion

Glacier tourism is gradually moving from niche scientific investigation and exploration to the general public and has become a widely sought-after tourism product in the tourism market. It is important to understand the perception and attitude characteristics of residents in glacier tourism places for planning and dynamic management of glacier tourism, better meeting residents’ needs and protecting the environment. Based on the results of the above empirical analysis and with reference to the current development of Hailuogou Glacier Forest Park, the following three countermeasures are proposed in terms of residents’ perception of interests, residents’ emotions towards the place, and residents’ emotional solidarity with tourists.

(1)

We must strengthen residents’ perceptions of interest in tourism development. Resident perception of interests significantly affects residents’ and tourists’ emotional solidarity and attitudes toward tourism development. We can focus on increasing opportunities for local residents, improving local transportation, and increasing residents’ insights to help them benefit from glacier tourism development and enhance their perception of the positive impact of developing glacier tourism. When formulating development policies, tourism management should continuously work on improving residents’ living standards, improving local transportation conditions, etc., while further increasing employment opportunities for residents, promoting local cultural heritage, protecting the local ecological environment, and effectively meeting residents’ needs. At present, the glacier tourism destination resident response to the publicity of scenic areas is not enough, glacier tourism products are relatively isolated, the tourist interaction time is short, and the sustainable development of glacier tourism is not appropriate. Thus, the management of tourist sites should increase marketing and planning to diversify glacier tourism products to attract more tourists, increase economic income, and improve the visibility and image of the scenic spot.

(2)

We must enhance resident emotions towards their location. In this paper, we found that the residents’ emotions towards the place is an important driver of host–guest emotional solidarity and residents’ attitudes towards tourism. The higher the residents’ emotions towards the place, the more they tend to invest their own resources to produce good emotional relationships and social interactions with tourists, which leads to supporting the development of glacier tourism. Relevant management departments of glacier tourism places should actively guide and cultivate residents’ emotions towards the site, encourage them to understand local culture in depth, strengthen publicity and guidance, and encourage them to actively participate in social activities, so that they can find things they like to do locally and thus develop a sense of attachment to the place.

(3)

We must promote residents’ emotional solidarity with tourists. Residents’ emotional solidarity with tourists will not only affect residents’ sense of security, but also their support and satisfaction. Therefore, tourism management should actively explore, through various community organizations, ways to enhance education, promote positive interactions between community residents and tourists, build a harmonious and trusting host–guest relationship, and enhance residents’ emotional connection and identification with tourists. Tourism place management should plan festivals with the participation of multiple subjects to create opportunities for host–guest exchanges and promote positive relationships between residents and tourists. At the same time, they can also actively promote tourism volunteer activities and set up visiting points for community residents to promote host–guest communication and enhance host–guest emotions, thus encouraging residents to welcome visiting tourists and treat them equally.

This study has some limitations to be improved by future research. Firstly, this study is a cross-sectional study, and the data were collected at the same time period, while the perceptions and attitudes of glacier tourism residents change over time, so the interpretation of glacier tourism residents’ perceptions and attitudes has some limitations. Follow-up studies should collect longitudinal data to overcome the limitations of this study and reveal the changes in resident perceptions and attitudes presented by residents of glacier tourism destinations due to time differences. In addition, residents’ emotional solidarity with tourists evolves at different stages of tourism development in Hailuogou glacier scenic area, and this study only analyzed on the current tourism development, failing to explain the moderating role of tourism development stages, hoping that subsequent studies will select destinations at different stages to verify the moderating role of tourism development stages [41]. Secondly, this study adopted a questionnaire approach to the measurement of community participation in tourism development, which may deviate from the reality of its real sustained participation in tourism development in the future, and future studies should adopt a research method that combines interview and experimental methods. Thirdly, complete borrowing of existing mature scales is an important means of ensuring the scientific validity of the study results. In order to better measure the process and causes of change in residents’ perceptions, this study draws on, modifies, and supplements existing scales according to local needs, and enhances the conviction of the study through complete data argumentation and comparison of findings, but the generalizability and application value of the scales in the same type of areas still need more empirical tests.