Developing a scale to measure the social distance between tourism community residents

Social distance is an important tool for evaluating the degree of intimacy between individuals that has been applied in various disciplines. However, while increasing attention has been paid to this topic, little effort has been invested in understanding the construct of social distance between tourism community residents. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale that would assist in understanding and evaluating the social distance between tourism community residents. First, focus group interviews, literature review analysis and content analysis were conducted to generate the initial items. Second, EFA and CFA were used as quantitative methods to analyze the questionnaire data obtained from the field survey of the tourism community. Following rigorous scale development procedures, we developed a 16-item scale that comprises three dimensions: degree of familiarity, degree of interaction and degree of support. The data support this dimensional structure of the social distance between tourism community residents as well as its internal consistency and validity (i.e., content, convergence, discriminant, and criterion-related validity). Theoretical and practical implications of the study results are discussed in detail.