Browsing by Author "Gaonkar, Sadanand"

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    A factor-cluster approach in assessing residents' perceptions towards sustainable rural tourism development
    (Federal University of Juiz de Fora, 2024) Gaonkar, Sadanand; Sukthankar, Sitaram V.
    Rural tourism is now widely embraced and has given rural residents numerous recreational business opportunities to engage in tourism globally. Therefore, they are required to investigate even on a lesser scale. In this regard, a study was conducted to ascertain how locals view sustainable rural tourism development and how these perceptions vary across various demographic categories. The data was gathered from 300 randomly selected Dharbandoda Taluka, Goa, India residents and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and Cluster Analysis. The EFA revealed the five main factors, namely, the public utility services factor, economic factors, social factors, cultural factors, and environmental factors. The factor-cluster analysis results identified the three main clusters: Socio-Environmental, Socio-Economic, and Socio-Cultural Focused. It is revealed that cluster 3 has more respondents who are female, ages between 18 to 25, single, and employed, and have favorable attitudes toward the sustainable development of rural tourism. The study concludes that the region will experience significant growth if more local and natural resources are utilized efficiently.
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    Drivers of Geographical Indication (GI) Tags’ Adoption Among Cashew Feni Producers: Extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour Using PLS-SEM
    (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2025) Sukthankar, Sitaram V.; Fernandes, Relita; Korde, Shilpa; Gaonkar, Sadanand; Sharma, Vikas
    This study explores the factors influencing the willingness of Cashew Feni producers to adopt GI certifications, delving deeper into the behavioural factors. This study is guided by the extended Theory of Planned Behaviour. This study was conducted in Goa, India, from June 2024 to January 2025 using a quantitative approach. Face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires were conducted with Cashew Feni producers actively producing, processing, and distributing Feni in the key production regions. A total of 200 producers were approached, and after validation, 148 responses were considered valid for analysis. The respondents were chosen using a stratified random sampling method. This study employed Partial Least Squares-based Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) in the SmartPLS 4 software to analyse the data. This study found that attitude is a strong predictor significantly driving adoption. Perceived economic benefits also impact attitudes and directly affect the willingness to adopt GIs, emphasising the role of economic factors. Additionally, awareness influences attitudes and subjective norms, indicating that informed producers are likelier to have a positive attitude towards GI adoption. This study also found a significant impact of subjective norms on attitudes and perceived behavioural control. These insights can assist policy formulation and boost sustainable growth and cultural preservation.
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    Evaluating the Resident Support for CulturalTourism Through a Revised Social ExchangeTheory Approach
    (Walter de Gruyter, 2025) Gaonkar, Sadanand; Sukthankar, Sitaram V.
    Abstract: The Social Exchange Theory (SET) has been pivotal in understanding residents’ support for tourism development. However, there is a need to understand the various factors determining residents’ support for cultural tourism. This study mainly proposes a revised SET framework that includes residents' community attachment, community involvement, perceived cultural impact, attitude towards cultural tourism, and attitude towards cultural tourists, as well as their influence on resident support for cultural tourism. The study also investigates, firstly, the simple mediating effect of residents’ perceived cultural impact between community attachment and residents’ support for cultural tourism and between community involvement and resident support for cultural tourism; secondly, the parallel mediating effect of residents’ attitudes toward cultural tourism and tourists between residents’ perceived cultural impact and residents’support for cultural tourism; and thirdly, the serial mediating effect of residents’ perceived cultural impact and attitude towards cultural tourism; residents’ perceived cultural impact and attitude towards cultural tourists, between community attachment and residents’support for cultural tourism, and between community involvement and residents’ support for cultural tourism. Primary data was collected through a questionnaire from a total of 500 respondents; 467 of those responses were deemed legitimate. The analysis is carried out using PLS-SEM in Smart PLS 4. The study results showed that residents' community attachment, community involvement, attitudes towards cultural tourism, and tourists are the significant positive factors influencing residents' support for cultural tourism. In contrast, residents perceived cultural impact does not significantly contribute to the residents’ support for cultural tourism. The study also revealed that the residents’ perceived cultural impact does not significantly mediate the relationship between community attachment and residents’ support for cultural
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    Mapping the behavioral intentions of tourists to revisit cultural destinations: A bibliometric analysis
    (Africa Journals, 2024) Gaonkar, Sadanand; Sukthankar, Sitaram V.
    The growing popularity of cultural tourism destinations has been the subject of numerous studies for decades. These destinations significantly contribute to the tourism industry by promoting and developing tourism products, attracting many tourists. Thus, it requires a thorough understanding of mapping the tourist's revisit behavioural intention to this destination. This also requires investigating what antecedents contribute to tourists' revisit behavioural intentions. Therefore, through a bibliometric analysis, this study addresses the overview of the current scope and boundary of knowledge to map the tourists' behavioural intentions to revisit cultural destinations. Data from 125 Scopus articles from 2003 to 2023 were analysed, and a review analysis was carried out using VosViewer and Biblioshiny software. A PRISMA approach is used to identify the research articles. The findings revealed that articles published from 2019 onwards have gradually increased in this area of research. Similarly, the author's contribution and network analysis results have been produced that revealed the antecedents of behavioural intention to revisit, such as Tourists' Destination Image, Tourists' Satisfaction, Tourists' Memorable Experience, Tourists' Motivation, and Perceived Authenticity. The study concludes that tourism managers and policymakers need to look at these aspects to develop the tourism industry while focusing on the cultural destination of the region.
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    Measuring and evaluating the influence of cultural sustainability indicators on sustainable cultural tourism development: Scale development and validation
    (Elsevier, 2025) Gaonkar, Sadanand; Sukthankar, Sitaram V.
    In the past few decades, tourism has significantly impacted the ecological, social, and environmental dimensions, making sustainability facilitation more vital. These aspects are also regarded as the primary pillars of sustainable tourism development. Culture is the cornerstone for accomplishing sustainable tourism research and practice goals in many domains. Culture has received very little attention despite being the deeply rooted and reliable framework for human existence. As a part of cultural tourism, even Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) has been largely ignored in sustainable tourism development. Moreover, the varied sustainability dimensions do not explain cultural sustainability indicators and how these indicators influence sustainable cultural tourism development. Therefore, firstly, this research aims to develop and measure a new scale for Cultural Sustainability Indicators and Sustainable Cultural Tourism Development (SCTD) and, secondly, to examine the influence of Cultural Sustainability Indicators on SCTD growth. In this sense, data was gathered from tourism stakeholders using self-administered questionnaires. A total of 1000 respondents completed the questionnaire; 949 of those responses were deemed legitimate. The new scale development identified the seven most important cultural sustainability indicators— Authenticity, Awareness, Commodification and Transformation, Empowerment, Parallel Development, Promotion, and Sustainability Practices, and one indicator of SCTD growth—SCTD, through Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) in SPSS 20. Further, to investigate the influence of cultural sustainability indicators on the growth of SCTD, additional analysis is conducted using PLS-SEM in Smart PLS 4. The study results showed that, except for parallel development and promotion, the five cultural sustainability indicators significantly and positively influence SCTD. Thus, the study concludes that culture is one of the most important aspects of developing a sustainable tourism industry and may be used to assess the sustainability of tourist destinations. The primary contribution of this work is a scale that depicts current perspectives and solutions for the cultural tourism sector as perceived by different stakeholders.
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    Understanding Behavioral Intention to Adopt Electric Vehicles Among Motorcycle Taxi Pilots: A PLS-SEM Approach
    (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2025) Sukthankar, Sitaram V.; Fernandes, Relita; Korde, Shilpa; Gaonkar, Sadanand; Kurtikar, Disha
    Progressive advancements in the global economy and technology have propelled human civilization forward; however, they have also inflicted significant harm on the global ecological environment. In the present era, electric vehicle (EV) technology is playing a vital role due to its environmentally friendly technological advances. However, widespread adoption of EVs has been hindered by their limited travel range, inadequate charging infrastructure, and high costs. This can be closely observed when we assess the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) among motorcycle taxi drivers, commonly called ‘pilots,’ in Goa, India. Motorcycle taxis are crucial in Goa’s transportation network, providing affordable, efficient, and door-to-door services, especially in regions with limited public transport options. However, the rising costs of petrol and vehicle maintenance have adversely affected the income of these pilots, prompting concerns about their willingness to adopt EVs. This study aims to analyze the factors prompting the behavioral intention to adopt EVs by motorcycle taxi pilots in Goa, India, focusing on six key determinants: charging infrastructure, effort expectancy, performance expectancy, price value, social influence, and satisfaction with incentive policies. A quantitative approach was employed, utilizing stratified proportionate random sampling techniques to collect data from 242 motorcycle taxi pilots registered with the Goa State Government Transport Department. It was analyzed using partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) through Smart-PLS 4.0 software. The research highlights that performance expectancy and price value are the potential motivators for the adoption of electric vehicles. These findings suggest that pilots are more likely to embrace EVs when they perceive tangible benefits in performance and find the cost reasonable in relation to the value offered. The results offer actionable insights for policymakers, manufacturers, and other stakeholders. These insights can guide strategic decisions and policy frameworks aimed at fostering a sustainable and user-centric transportation ecosystem.