Comparative study on residents’ perception of tourism impact at tourist places

Abstract

Based on the questionnaire investigation, the authors make a comparative study on local residents' perception of tourism impacts in Xidi, Zhouzhuang and Jiuhua Mountain. The result shows that residents of the three places tend to have strong and consistent perception of its positive economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts, but distinctly diverse ones of its negative impacts. Residents in Xidi and Zhouzhuang also have noticeable perception of its negative environmental impacts while those in Jiuhua Mountain have weaker perception of them. The research confirms the fact that residents are more liable to have positive perceptions at the early stage of the life cycle of the tourist places. The authors conclude that there exists a nonlinear relationship between residents' perception and tourism development stages, and that tourism socio-cultural impact may appear at an early stage of tourism development instead of being no universal.

Residents’ perceptions of the impact of tourism in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

“…Pappas (2008) suggests that social impacts are affected by gender; men are more favorable to positive social impacts, and women are more concerned with negative social impacts. Su et al (2005) argue that social impacts are difficult to measure, especially negative impacts, and they vary across destinations in the same country due to the types of tourists attracted to a destination, destination carrying capacities, degree of interaction between host residents and tourists and disparities between residents' and tourists' cultural, economic and social backgrounds. Hsu (2006) examines residents' perceptions of tourism impacts in Lan-Yu, Taiwan, suggesting that residents' perceptions of social impacts of tourism are influenced by characteristics such as education, employment status, and length of residency.…”

“…However, their findings also demonstrate the difficulty of separating changes to a community due to tourism and changes due to modernization. Most literature on residents' perceptions of tourism impacts combine social and cultural impacts under sociocultural impacts, and often uses variables to measure both effects in one section (Alhasanat and Hyasat, 2011;Choi, 2013;Hernández and Mercader, 2015;Su et al, 2005). Few studies distinguish social and cultural impacts (Brunt and Courtney, 1999;Ling et al, 2011).…”

Evaluating perceptions of residents’ towards impacts of tourism development in Emirates of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

“…The impacts of tourism are often grouped in two aspects: positive and negative (Jurowski et al , 1997). Positive impacts of tourism include improving quality of life, increasing recreational facilities, economic development, increasing availability of cultural activities and promoting cultural exchanges between residents and tourists (Gursoy et al , 2010; Kim et al , 2013; Rivera et al , 2015; Soontayatron, 2010; Su et al , 2005; Yu, 2011). Negative impacts include increases to social crimes, unpleasant crowding, environmental pollution, increased costs of living and inflation of property values (Dyer et al , 2007; Eraqi, 2007; Jaafar et al , 2015; Jurowski, 1994; Long and Kayat, 2011).…”

Chinese rural tourism development: Transition in the case of Qiyunshan, Anhui. – 2008–2015

“…Additionally most were of a view that the local environment had improved because of tourism, although it is also interesting to note that many of the improvements related to issues of cleanliness and aesthetics rather than more significant factors. As Su, Cao, and Lin (2005) explained, government authorities often pay more attention to local income and employment opportunities rather than wider implications for the environment, society and culture. As for the resident groups (those living on the mountain and those living in villages around Qiyunshan), both clearly realized the benefits and costs which tourism had brought to the local community.…”