An Empirical Study on the Stakeholders Support on Rural Tourism and Sustainable Growth in Community Business-A Case Study of Karaikudi, Tamilnadu, India

This study tests the impact of stakeholders opinions about the impacts of tourism development and community participation and further to determine their willingness to support rural tourism and marketing strategies for sustainable growth of business using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The social exchange theory and stakeholders theory provide the theoretical background for this study.The study is descriptive in nature, and is based on both quantitative methodology to investigate the relationships between different constructs. The research study used survey questionnaires for quantitative data collection. The study area is a rural tourism spot Karaikudi, Sivaganga District in Tamilnadu, India. Convenience and quota sampling methods were adapted to collect quantitative data from different tourism stakeholders such as government authorities, businesses, residents, tourism faculty and students. The sample size is 320. The data was then analyzed using the statistical package SPSS and model was tested using SEM. The research shows some statistical positive relationship between tourism development impacts people may experience, their desire for more participation in the decision-making process and tourism support. The result helps the rural tourism planners, governments and support organizations in other areas to better evaluate and understand the stakeholders' attitude and perceptions before implementing the project.