Justice under tourism pressure: Governance fairness, emotional solidarity, and residents’ co-governance participation intention in tourism-affected communities
- 1Department of Tourism Management, School of Business, Wuxi Taihu University, Wuxi, China
Abstract
Amid growing tourism pressure in communities surrounding major attractions, questions of governance legitimacy, fairness, and resident engagement have become increasingly salient. This study examines how residents’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice are associated with emotional solidarity with tourists and co-governance participation intention. Survey data from 308 residents living near major attractions in Wuxi, China, were analyzed using structural equation modeling, mediation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis. The results show that all three dimensions of perceived justice are positively associated with emotional solidarity and co-governance participation intention, with procedural and interactional justice showing particularly strong associations. The mediation results indicate a significant indirect association between governance fairness and participation intention through emotional solidarity. The moderation results show that perceived tourism pressure is significant only for the association between interactional justice and emotional solidarity, while its moderating role is not significant for distributive or procedural justice. These findings suggest that residents’ willingness to engage in co-governance is associated not only with how tourism is managed institutionally, but also with their relational orientation toward tourists. The study highlights the importance of transparent procedures, meaningful resident voice, and respectful everyday interactions for understanding collaborative governance in urban destinations under sustained tourism pressure.
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BibTeX
@article{jiang2026justice,
title = {{Justice under tourism pressure: Governance fairness, emotional solidarity, and residents’ co-governance participation intention in tourism-affected communities}},
author = {Xiaoqing Jiang},
journal = {PLOS One},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0360394},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360394},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Justice under tourism pressure: Governance fairness, emotional solidarity, and residents’ co-governance participation intention in tourism-affected communities
AU - Xiaoqing Jiang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - PLOS One
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0360394
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360394
AB - Amid growing tourism pressure in communities surrounding major attractions, questions of governance legitimacy, fairness, and resident engagement have become increasingly salient. This study examines how residents’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice are associated with emotional solidarity with tourists and co-governance participation intention. Survey data from 308 residents living near major attractions in Wuxi, China, were analyzed using structural equation modeling, mediation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis. The results show that all three dimensions of perceived justice are positively associated with emotional solidarity and co-governance participation intention, with procedural and interactional justice showing particularly strong associations. The mediation results indicate a significant indirect association between governance fairness and participation intention through emotional solidarity. The moderation results show that perceived tourism pressure is significant only for the association between interactional justice and emotional solidarity, while its moderating role is not significant for distributive or procedural justice. These findings suggest that residents’ willingness to engage in co-governance is associated not only with how tourism is managed institutionally, but also with their relational orientation toward tourists. The study highlights the importance of transparent procedures, meaningful resident voice, and respectful everyday interactions for understanding collaborative governance in urban destinations under sustained tourism pressure.
SN - 1932-6203
ER -