The Mediating Effects of Tolerance on Residents’ Support Toward Tourism Events

The classic social exchange theory associates residents’ level of support toward tourism events with their perceived positive and negative tourism impacts directly. However, the contradictory results reported in the literature suggest that such conceptualization may not fully capture the dynamics of the underlying relationships because the linkages between perceived costs and support are often vague. The purpose of this study is to introduce and investigate the role of tolerance in the formation of residents’ support toward tourism events. Results based on data collected from 296 residents at 6 different tourism events in a southeast capital city indicated that tolerance significantly mediated the relationship between perceived benefits and support, as well as perceived costs and support. Our study provides strong theoretical support and empirical findings for the inclusion of tolerance in evaluating residents’ support toward tourism events