The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to assess the determinants of support for tourism development in two adjacent communities, Cape Coast and Elmina, in the Central Region of Ghana, which stand to benefit the most from tourism development projects; and (2) to create and test a model for its explanatory power of residents’ support for tourism. Personal interviews of 465 respondents were conducted in both communities. Factor analysis was used to obtain measures for dependent and independent variables. Two dependent variables—support for the hospitality industry and support for the infrastructure and tourism attraction development—were influenced by a multitude of social-psychological factors such as perceptions toward tourists and tourism’s impacts, respondents’ employment status, membership in community organizations, and awareness of tourism development projects in the community. Theoretical and practical contributions of the factors are discussed within the framework of social exchange theory.
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