Structural Model to Evaluate the Effect of Community Participation on Ecotourism Sustainability.
Structural Model to Evaluate the Effect of Community Participation
on Ecotourism Sustainability
I Putu Eka N. Kencana
Researcher
Tourism Research Consortium – Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education, Indonesia
i.putu.enk@gmail.com
Ni Putu Tresiani Manutami
Graduate Student
Tourism Studies – Udayana Unversity, Bali, Indonesia
tresianimanutami@yahoo.com
G.K. Gandhiadi
Senior Lecturer
Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science – Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia
gandhiadigk@yahoo.com
Abstract
This paper aimed to study the effect of local community participation on ecotourism sustainability at
Kiadan village, Badung regency of Bali, Indonesia. Two aspects regarding ecotourism sustainability
has been studied, i.e. (a) economic benefits for local communities and (b) tourists’ satisfaction. By
using partial least square, the data collected in July 2015 from local community leaders and tourist
were analyzed. Four latent variables, namely (a) community participation, (b) economic benefits, (c)
tourists’ satisfaction, and (d) ecotourism sustainability, were used to build structural model. The
result shows community participation and tourists’ satisfaction proved significantly affect the
sustainability of ecotourism at Kiadan, and community participation also affect the economic
benefits of local communities.
Keywords: community participation, Partial Least Square (PLS), sustainability of ecotourism
Biographical Notes
I Putu Eka N. Kencana is a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, University of Udayana at Bali,
Indonesia where he teaches courses on tourism statistics and tourism modeling. He is also a
researcher at Tourism Research Consortium, Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher
Education, Indonesia. His research focuses on tourism modeling, fuzzy system, and sociometrics
modeling.
Ni Putu Tresiani Manutami is a graduate student at Tourism Studies, University of Udayana at Bali,
Indonesia. She received her undergraduate degree from Department of Mathematics, University of
Udayana. Recently she is interested to study the behavior of local community at hinterland toward
tourism.
GK. Gandhiadi is a senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics University of Udayana at Bali,
Indonesia. His interests are tourism economic and fuzzy modeling. Recently he is doing research
about the relationship between social capital of local community and sustainability of tourism.
Introduction
Many scholars argued sustainability of one area as tourist destination heavily depend on the
involment and participation of local community at the tourism system in their villages (Tosun and
Timothy, 2003; Choi and Sirakaya, 2006; Long, 2012). By taking participation in tourists’ activities,
local people have chances to initiate and manage their small business that focus on servicing and
supplying tourists’ needs. In addition, for people with lack of abilities to make business, they might
be hired by business located around their village. In general, tourism give economic benefit for local
people whom participate in tourism activities at their village, through direct or indirect participation
(Tosun and Timothy, 2003).
Kiadan village at District of Petang, located at the northern part of Badung Regency, Province of Bali.
Kiadan is one of total 27 indigenous villages at this district. Since 2002, the Kiadan village was
launched by local government as ecotourism village. This village is a highland region with the natural
condition of the mountain. Natural green panorama with fresh air as well as the development of
superior coffee plantations by the local community, causes Kiadan village has its own attraction, and
therefore it starting and visited by foreign tourists. Moreover, the village is located on the path to
tourist destination between Bedugul and Kintamani.
This research is motivated to elaborate and to study the relationship between local community
participation and sustainability of ecotourism, especially in higland region of Bali. We focused our
study on three main issues, namely (a) the effect of community participation on economic’s benefit
gained by local people, (b) the effect of community participation and tourists’ satisfaction on
ecotourism sustainability at Kiadan village, and (c) the effect of ecotourism sustainability on
economic’s benefit of local people. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to study these
issues.
In brief, SEM is a method to find the relationship between latent variables that is belonged to
multivariate statistical analysis as well as factor analysis that is common used by sosial researcher
(Hair et al., 2012). According to Bollen (2002) and Tenenhaus et al. (2005), SEM is a powerfull
technique to study latent or construct, variable that can not be measured directly. Latent variable
usually measured by its indicator or manifest.
Research Method
The primary data used in this research is obtained by using questionnaires from local people who
participate in the management of Kiadan Village Ecotourism and tourists that visiting Kiadan Village
ecotourism on Mey – July 2015. The amount of sample to be used is as much as 120 respondents,
60 samples were taken from the local community and another 60 were taken from the tourists who
visited Kiadan village.
There were seven first-order latent variables, namely (a) direct participation, (b) indirect
participation, (c) economic’s benefit, (d) attraction, (e) accessibility, (f) amenity, and (g) ecotourism
sustainability. In addition, three second-order laten variables formed the structural model, i.e. (a)
community participation, and (b) tourists’satisfaction. The conceptual model of this research is
depicted in Figure 1:
Figure 1. Conceptual Model of Research
Referring to the literature relating to community-based ecotourism, a survey instrument was
developed to this study. Several items were developed for each indicator in the model. Pilot study
was conducted to measure instrument’s realiability and items’ validity. The questionnaire items
with five level Likert scale were assessed by examining the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and totalitem correlation. The operation model was depicted in Figure 2:
Figure 2. Operational Model of Research
Result and Discussion
At the beginning phase of analysis, we tested the validity and reliability of the research instrument.
An item in the instrument is declared invalid, if the value of the correlation coefficient between the
item question with a total score is gerater than 0,30 (Churchill, 1979). Furthermore, a measurement
instrument is called reliable if the value of Cronbach Alpha ≥ 0.60 (Hair et al., 2012).
Using Statistical Package for Social Sience (SPSS) 19.0, we found all of the first-ordered latent
variables were reliable. Only item Y3 and Y9 had correlation coefficient below the threshold valued
suggested by Churchill (1979), with coefficients as much as 0,270 and 0,282; respectively. From
these findings, we concluded to eliminates Y3 and Y9 from subsequent analysis.
Briefly, SEM analysis can be classified into outer or measurement model analysis and inner or
structural model analysis. Measurement model analysis is conducted to assess latent variables with
reflective indicator in terms of their observed or manifest variables (Hox and Bechger, 1998; Hair et
al., 1995). Typically, this is done by observing Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability. At the
construct level, convergent validity be assessed by examining whether the average variance
extracted (AVE) greater than 0.50 (Peng and Lai, 2012); and at item level the factor loadings are high
(greater than 0.60) (Hair et al., 1995) and significant (Peng and Lai, 2012).
From the measurement model analysis, we counted the factor loadings, t-values, AVE, and
composite reliability (CR) for all of latents with reflective manifests after Y3 and Y9 have been
dropped using SmartPLS 3.2.3 (Ringle, Wende and Will, 2005). At the item level, all of the factor
loadings exceeded 0.50 and were statistically significant at 5% and proved the measurement model
achieved convergent validity. In addition, all of the CR’s values exceeded 0.60 showing a high level
of internal consistency for the latent variables. Moreover, all of the AVE’s values greater than 0.50,
showing the measurement achieved convergent validity at the item level and also discriminant
validity at the construct level. From these findings, we concluded this research had appropriate
levels of convergent and discriminant validity and structural model analysis worth to be conducted.
After knowing the measurement model had appropriate criteria, we analyzed the structural model
to determine the causal relationship between exogenous and endogenous latent variables. The
result summarized in Table 1:
Table 1. The Value of Path Coefficient Between Exogenous and Endogenous Latent Variables
in Structural Model
Path Standard
Exogenous Latent
Endogenous Latent
P-Value
Coefficient
Error
Accessibility
Tourists’ Satisfaction
0.248
0.072
0.001 Significant
Amenity
Tourists’ Satisfaction
0.189
0.074
0.011 Significant
Attraction
Tourists’ Satisfaction
0.789
0.089
0.000 Significant
Community Participation Direct Participation
0.934
0.033
0.000 Significant
Community Participation Indirect Participation
0.854
0.035
0.000 Significant
Community Participation Economic Benefit
0.614
0.271
0.040 Significant
Community Participation Ecotourism Sustainability
0.641
0.271
0.018 Significant
Not
Ecotourism Sustainability Economic Benefit
0.107
0.305
0.727
Significant
Tourists’ Satisfaction
Ecotourism Sustainability
0.633
0.327
0.050 Significant
Source: Primary Data (2015), Processed
The final structural equation model with all of direct effects is depicted in Figure3:
Figure 3. Path Coefficients of Causal Relationship in the Structural Equation Model
Referring to Figure 3 and Table 1, both reflective first-order latent of community participation had
significantly path coefficient. The path value for direct participation is greater than indirect
participation that means direct participation outperformed indirect participation of Kiadan’s people
in ecotourism activities. Moreover, attraction provided by ecotourism industries at Kiadan village
dominates accessibility and amenity factors in forming tourists’ satisfaction although all of these
first-order latent variables proved significantly affect tourists’ satisfaction.
The results also states the causal relationships between main latent variables (community
participation, tourists’ satisfaction, ecotourism sustainability, and economic benefit) reflect
significant and not significant effects. Sustainability of Kiadan’s ecotourism proved significantly
affected by community participation and tourists’ satisfaction althouth effect arose from
participation slightly greater than effect arose from tourists’ satisfaction (path values for
participation and tourists’ satisfaction as much as 0,641 and 0, 633; respectively).
However, path values on causal relationship between community participation and ecotourism
sustainability toward economic benefit gained by local people, only one coefficient showed
significant effect i.e. effect of community participation. Ecotourism sustainability did not prove
significantly affects the economic benefit of Kiadan’s people.
Conclusion
Based on the results obtained, we concluded that the community participation and satisfaction of
tourists who visited the Kiadan Village had significant effects on sustainability of Kiadan village
ecotourism. Meanwhile, although participation of community proved significantly affect the
economic benefits received by the local communities, the sustainability of ecotourism at this village
did not affect significantly the economic benefit.
Bibliography
Tosun, C. and Timothy, D.J. (2003) 'Community Participation in the Tourism Development Process',
Journal of Tourism Studies, vol. 14, no. 2, December, pp. 1-15.
Long, P.H. (2012) 'Tourism Impacts and Support for Tourism Development in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam:
An Examination of Resident's Perceptions', Asian Social Science, vol. 8, no. 8, July, pp. 28-39.
Choi, H.C. and Sirakaya, E. (2006) 'Sustainability indicators for managing community tourism',
Tourism Management, vol. 27, pp. 1275-1289.
Untong, A., Kaosa-Ard, M., Ramos, V., Sangkakorn, K. and Rey-Maquieira, J. (2010) 'Factors
Influencing Local Resident Support for Tourism Development: A Structural Equation Model',
The APTA Conference, Macau, China, 1-21.
Hair, J.F., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C.M. and Mena, J.A. (2012) 'An assessment of the use of partial least
squares structural equation modeling in marketing research', Journal of Academic Marketing
Science, vol. 40, pp. 414-433.
Bollen, K.A. (2002) 'Latent Variables in Psychology and the Social Sciences', Annual Review of
Psychological, vol. 53, pp. 605-634.
Tenenhaus, M., Vinzi, V.E., Chatelin, Y.-M. and Lauro, C. (2005) 'PLS path modeling', Computational
Statistics & Data Analysis, vol. 48, pp. 159-205.
Churchill, G.A. (1979) 'A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs', Journal
of Marketing Research, vol. 16, no. 1, February, pp. 64-73.
Hox, J.J. and Bechger, T.M. (1998) 'An Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling', Family Science
Review, vol. 11, pp. 354-373.
Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L. and Black, W.C. (1995) Multivariate Data Analysis with
Readings, 4th edition, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Peng, D.X. and Lai, F. (2012) 'Using partial least squares in operations management research: A
practical guideline and summary of past research', Journal of Operation Management, vol. 30,
pp. 467-480.
Ringle, C.M., Wende, S. and Will, A. (2005) SmartPLS 2.0, [Online], Available:
http://www.smartpls.de [12 October 2012].
on Ecotourism Sustainability
I Putu Eka N. Kencana
Researcher
Tourism Research Consortium – Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education, Indonesia
i.putu.enk@gmail.com
Ni Putu Tresiani Manutami
Graduate Student
Tourism Studies – Udayana Unversity, Bali, Indonesia
tresianimanutami@yahoo.com
G.K. Gandhiadi
Senior Lecturer
Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science – Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia
gandhiadigk@yahoo.com
Abstract
This paper aimed to study the effect of local community participation on ecotourism sustainability at
Kiadan village, Badung regency of Bali, Indonesia. Two aspects regarding ecotourism sustainability
has been studied, i.e. (a) economic benefits for local communities and (b) tourists’ satisfaction. By
using partial least square, the data collected in July 2015 from local community leaders and tourist
were analyzed. Four latent variables, namely (a) community participation, (b) economic benefits, (c)
tourists’ satisfaction, and (d) ecotourism sustainability, were used to build structural model. The
result shows community participation and tourists’ satisfaction proved significantly affect the
sustainability of ecotourism at Kiadan, and community participation also affect the economic
benefits of local communities.
Keywords: community participation, Partial Least Square (PLS), sustainability of ecotourism
Biographical Notes
I Putu Eka N. Kencana is a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, University of Udayana at Bali,
Indonesia where he teaches courses on tourism statistics and tourism modeling. He is also a
researcher at Tourism Research Consortium, Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher
Education, Indonesia. His research focuses on tourism modeling, fuzzy system, and sociometrics
modeling.
Ni Putu Tresiani Manutami is a graduate student at Tourism Studies, University of Udayana at Bali,
Indonesia. She received her undergraduate degree from Department of Mathematics, University of
Udayana. Recently she is interested to study the behavior of local community at hinterland toward
tourism.
GK. Gandhiadi is a senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics University of Udayana at Bali,
Indonesia. His interests are tourism economic and fuzzy modeling. Recently he is doing research
about the relationship between social capital of local community and sustainability of tourism.
Introduction
Many scholars argued sustainability of one area as tourist destination heavily depend on the
involment and participation of local community at the tourism system in their villages (Tosun and
Timothy, 2003; Choi and Sirakaya, 2006; Long, 2012). By taking participation in tourists’ activities,
local people have chances to initiate and manage their small business that focus on servicing and
supplying tourists’ needs. In addition, for people with lack of abilities to make business, they might
be hired by business located around their village. In general, tourism give economic benefit for local
people whom participate in tourism activities at their village, through direct or indirect participation
(Tosun and Timothy, 2003).
Kiadan village at District of Petang, located at the northern part of Badung Regency, Province of Bali.
Kiadan is one of total 27 indigenous villages at this district. Since 2002, the Kiadan village was
launched by local government as ecotourism village. This village is a highland region with the natural
condition of the mountain. Natural green panorama with fresh air as well as the development of
superior coffee plantations by the local community, causes Kiadan village has its own attraction, and
therefore it starting and visited by foreign tourists. Moreover, the village is located on the path to
tourist destination between Bedugul and Kintamani.
This research is motivated to elaborate and to study the relationship between local community
participation and sustainability of ecotourism, especially in higland region of Bali. We focused our
study on three main issues, namely (a) the effect of community participation on economic’s benefit
gained by local people, (b) the effect of community participation and tourists’ satisfaction on
ecotourism sustainability at Kiadan village, and (c) the effect of ecotourism sustainability on
economic’s benefit of local people. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to study these
issues.
In brief, SEM is a method to find the relationship between latent variables that is belonged to
multivariate statistical analysis as well as factor analysis that is common used by sosial researcher
(Hair et al., 2012). According to Bollen (2002) and Tenenhaus et al. (2005), SEM is a powerfull
technique to study latent or construct, variable that can not be measured directly. Latent variable
usually measured by its indicator or manifest.
Research Method
The primary data used in this research is obtained by using questionnaires from local people who
participate in the management of Kiadan Village Ecotourism and tourists that visiting Kiadan Village
ecotourism on Mey – July 2015. The amount of sample to be used is as much as 120 respondents,
60 samples were taken from the local community and another 60 were taken from the tourists who
visited Kiadan village.
There were seven first-order latent variables, namely (a) direct participation, (b) indirect
participation, (c) economic’s benefit, (d) attraction, (e) accessibility, (f) amenity, and (g) ecotourism
sustainability. In addition, three second-order laten variables formed the structural model, i.e. (a)
community participation, and (b) tourists’satisfaction. The conceptual model of this research is
depicted in Figure 1:
Figure 1. Conceptual Model of Research
Referring to the literature relating to community-based ecotourism, a survey instrument was
developed to this study. Several items were developed for each indicator in the model. Pilot study
was conducted to measure instrument’s realiability and items’ validity. The questionnaire items
with five level Likert scale were assessed by examining the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and totalitem correlation. The operation model was depicted in Figure 2:
Figure 2. Operational Model of Research
Result and Discussion
At the beginning phase of analysis, we tested the validity and reliability of the research instrument.
An item in the instrument is declared invalid, if the value of the correlation coefficient between the
item question with a total score is gerater than 0,30 (Churchill, 1979). Furthermore, a measurement
instrument is called reliable if the value of Cronbach Alpha ≥ 0.60 (Hair et al., 2012).
Using Statistical Package for Social Sience (SPSS) 19.0, we found all of the first-ordered latent
variables were reliable. Only item Y3 and Y9 had correlation coefficient below the threshold valued
suggested by Churchill (1979), with coefficients as much as 0,270 and 0,282; respectively. From
these findings, we concluded to eliminates Y3 and Y9 from subsequent analysis.
Briefly, SEM analysis can be classified into outer or measurement model analysis and inner or
structural model analysis. Measurement model analysis is conducted to assess latent variables with
reflective indicator in terms of their observed or manifest variables (Hox and Bechger, 1998; Hair et
al., 1995). Typically, this is done by observing Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability. At the
construct level, convergent validity be assessed by examining whether the average variance
extracted (AVE) greater than 0.50 (Peng and Lai, 2012); and at item level the factor loadings are high
(greater than 0.60) (Hair et al., 1995) and significant (Peng and Lai, 2012).
From the measurement model analysis, we counted the factor loadings, t-values, AVE, and
composite reliability (CR) for all of latents with reflective manifests after Y3 and Y9 have been
dropped using SmartPLS 3.2.3 (Ringle, Wende and Will, 2005). At the item level, all of the factor
loadings exceeded 0.50 and were statistically significant at 5% and proved the measurement model
achieved convergent validity. In addition, all of the CR’s values exceeded 0.60 showing a high level
of internal consistency for the latent variables. Moreover, all of the AVE’s values greater than 0.50,
showing the measurement achieved convergent validity at the item level and also discriminant
validity at the construct level. From these findings, we concluded this research had appropriate
levels of convergent and discriminant validity and structural model analysis worth to be conducted.
After knowing the measurement model had appropriate criteria, we analyzed the structural model
to determine the causal relationship between exogenous and endogenous latent variables. The
result summarized in Table 1:
Table 1. The Value of Path Coefficient Between Exogenous and Endogenous Latent Variables
in Structural Model
Path Standard
Exogenous Latent
Endogenous Latent
P-Value
Coefficient
Error
Accessibility
Tourists’ Satisfaction
0.248
0.072
0.001 Significant
Amenity
Tourists’ Satisfaction
0.189
0.074
0.011 Significant
Attraction
Tourists’ Satisfaction
0.789
0.089
0.000 Significant
Community Participation Direct Participation
0.934
0.033
0.000 Significant
Community Participation Indirect Participation
0.854
0.035
0.000 Significant
Community Participation Economic Benefit
0.614
0.271
0.040 Significant
Community Participation Ecotourism Sustainability
0.641
0.271
0.018 Significant
Not
Ecotourism Sustainability Economic Benefit
0.107
0.305
0.727
Significant
Tourists’ Satisfaction
Ecotourism Sustainability
0.633
0.327
0.050 Significant
Source: Primary Data (2015), Processed
The final structural equation model with all of direct effects is depicted in Figure3:
Figure 3. Path Coefficients of Causal Relationship in the Structural Equation Model
Referring to Figure 3 and Table 1, both reflective first-order latent of community participation had
significantly path coefficient. The path value for direct participation is greater than indirect
participation that means direct participation outperformed indirect participation of Kiadan’s people
in ecotourism activities. Moreover, attraction provided by ecotourism industries at Kiadan village
dominates accessibility and amenity factors in forming tourists’ satisfaction although all of these
first-order latent variables proved significantly affect tourists’ satisfaction.
The results also states the causal relationships between main latent variables (community
participation, tourists’ satisfaction, ecotourism sustainability, and economic benefit) reflect
significant and not significant effects. Sustainability of Kiadan’s ecotourism proved significantly
affected by community participation and tourists’ satisfaction althouth effect arose from
participation slightly greater than effect arose from tourists’ satisfaction (path values for
participation and tourists’ satisfaction as much as 0,641 and 0, 633; respectively).
However, path values on causal relationship between community participation and ecotourism
sustainability toward economic benefit gained by local people, only one coefficient showed
significant effect i.e. effect of community participation. Ecotourism sustainability did not prove
significantly affects the economic benefit of Kiadan’s people.
Conclusion
Based on the results obtained, we concluded that the community participation and satisfaction of
tourists who visited the Kiadan Village had significant effects on sustainability of Kiadan village
ecotourism. Meanwhile, although participation of community proved significantly affect the
economic benefits received by the local communities, the sustainability of ecotourism at this village
did not affect significantly the economic benefit.
Bibliography
Tosun, C. and Timothy, D.J. (2003) 'Community Participation in the Tourism Development Process',
Journal of Tourism Studies, vol. 14, no. 2, December, pp. 1-15.
Long, P.H. (2012) 'Tourism Impacts and Support for Tourism Development in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam:
An Examination of Resident's Perceptions', Asian Social Science, vol. 8, no. 8, July, pp. 28-39.
Choi, H.C. and Sirakaya, E. (2006) 'Sustainability indicators for managing community tourism',
Tourism Management, vol. 27, pp. 1275-1289.
Untong, A., Kaosa-Ard, M., Ramos, V., Sangkakorn, K. and Rey-Maquieira, J. (2010) 'Factors
Influencing Local Resident Support for Tourism Development: A Structural Equation Model',
The APTA Conference, Macau, China, 1-21.
Hair, J.F., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C.M. and Mena, J.A. (2012) 'An assessment of the use of partial least
squares structural equation modeling in marketing research', Journal of Academic Marketing
Science, vol. 40, pp. 414-433.
Bollen, K.A. (2002) 'Latent Variables in Psychology and the Social Sciences', Annual Review of
Psychological, vol. 53, pp. 605-634.
Tenenhaus, M., Vinzi, V.E., Chatelin, Y.-M. and Lauro, C. (2005) 'PLS path modeling', Computational
Statistics & Data Analysis, vol. 48, pp. 159-205.
Churchill, G.A. (1979) 'A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs', Journal
of Marketing Research, vol. 16, no. 1, February, pp. 64-73.
Hox, J.J. and Bechger, T.M. (1998) 'An Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling', Family Science
Review, vol. 11, pp. 354-373.
Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L. and Black, W.C. (1995) Multivariate Data Analysis with
Readings, 4th edition, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Peng, D.X. and Lai, F. (2012) 'Using partial least squares in operations management research: A
practical guideline and summary of past research', Journal of Operation Management, vol. 30,
pp. 467-480.
Ringle, C.M., Wende, S. and Will, A. (2005) SmartPLS 2.0, [Online], Available:
http://www.smartpls.de [12 October 2012].