Residents’ Perceptions of Tourism Impacts and Attitudes Towards Tourism Policies in a Small Mountain Community

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts and how they affect attitudes towards local tourism policies. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of community attachment and employment sector of residents. This study presents the results of a quantitative survey among residing families of a small mountain community located in the Northeast of Italy. The findings reveal that residents’ perceptions on economic, environmental and socio-cultural impacts affect their support to local tourism policies. Residents who perceive positively tourism impacts are more willing to support future tourism development policies. The analysis has also demonstrated that native-born residents generally perceive negatively tourism impacts and are less willing to support any increase in the overall number of tourists, supporting the well know social exchange theory. Some implications for the tourism planning and management of the destination are also discussed.

Keywords: residents’ perceptions, tourism development, tourism policies, community attachment, social exchange theory, tourism impacts

JEL Classification: A12, C20, C25, C49