sustainability Article The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Residents’ Support for Sustainable Tourism Development Simona Vinerean * , Alin Opreana , Cosmin Tileagă and Roxana Elena Pops , a   Citation: Vinerean, S.; Opreana, A.; Tileag˘ a, C.; Pops , a, R.E. The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Residents’ Support for Sustainable Tourism Development. Sustainability 2021, 13, 12541. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su132212541 Academic Editor: Alastair M. Morrison Received: 10 October 2021 Accepted: 8 November 2021 Published: 12 November 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Department of Management, Marketing and Business Administration, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, 550024 Sibiu, Romania; alin.opreana@ulbsibiu.ro (A.O.); cosmin.tileaga@ulbsibiu.ro (C.T.); roxana.popsa@ulbsibiu.ro (R.E.P.) * Correspondence: simona.vinerean@ulbsibiu.ro Abstract: The tourism industry has been gravely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, the purpose of this study was to explore residents’ support for sustainable tourism development in an integrative model that considered well-established factors and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing various research gaps caused by the pandemic, this study aimed to examine a model based on eight hypotheses. Using the premises of a cross-sectional study, data was gathered from residents from Sibiu. Data analysis implied various steps to provide an accurate understanding of the hypotheses and the model was developed based on structural equation modeling. Considering the results of hypothesis testing, our study reconfirmed the applicability of social exchange theory in describing residents’ attitudes toward tourism development and positioned quality of life as an important predictor for this construct. Also, the outcomes highlighted a negative relationship between the host community’s perceptions of the coronavirus pandemic and their subsequent support for sustainable tourism development. Overall, the results focused on offering contributions for a better understanding of residents’ behavior and the influence of the COVID-19 outbreak on their support for sustainable tourism development. The conceptual and practical ramifications of the study were addressed in the article’s conclusion. Keywords: sustainable tourism development; tourism impacts; COVID-19 impact; quality of life; community attachment; residents’ perceptions 1. Introduction Residents’ hospitality is regarded as an essential component in the development of sustainable tourism [1]. As a standalone concept, sustainable tourism development is defined as a “pathway that cultivates the tourism industry as economic viability without damaging and harming residents’ society and their environment” [2]. In this context, monitoring the attitudes and perceptions of residents is of crucial importance, especially for tourism planners, destination management organizations, hospitality businesses, tourism practitioners, and local authorities. By understanding the perspectives of the host popu- lation, local authorities and destination management organizations are better equipped to promote the advantages of tourism, such as economic and social opportunities [3–6]. Vargas-Sánchez et al. [7] note that “residents tend to support tourism as a development strategy for their community”. Studies showed that the impacts of tourism perceived by the host population community are connected to residents’ quality of life and their subsequent advocacy for sustainable tourism [8]. This evaluation from the residents’ point of view has been widely associated with the theoretical framework of social exchanges [9]. Thus, social exchange theory (SET) indicates that the host population may encourage tourism develop- ment depending on their assessments of the positive/favorable and negative/unfavorable aspects associated with tourism activities [4,5]. Residents are willing to participate in an exchange if they consider that the benefits of their involvement outweigh the costs of that activity. As a result, a community is more inclined to embrace tourism if the perceived Sustainability 2021, 13, 12541. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212541 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability