Tourism employment and local residents’ engagement in the conservation of the built heritage in Zanzibar Stone Town in Tanzania

Abstract

This study investigated the moderating effect of tourism employment on the relationship between attitudes to conservation, perceived social pressure, and perceived control on one hand, and intention to conserve built heritage on the other. This was an attempt to extend the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) which has been widely applied in conservation studies without integrating tourism factors that may exert effects on the relationships. A questionnaire survey was applied to 208 households in Zanzibar Stone Town. The results of the structural model verify the effect of attitudes, perceived social pressure and perceived control on intention to conserve. They also indicate that tourism employment significantly moderated the attitudes-intention and perceived social pressure-intention relationships. Overall, the study supports the extension of TPB with the inclusion of tourism employment as an important situational factor. Theoretical, policy and managerial implications are discussed.