Urban Residents' Perceptions of Environmental Impacts

This article examines urban residents' perceptions of environmental impacts in the city of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The study vies to contribute to knowledge concerning how citizens in Tennessee view tourism and its impact on the environment. A mail survey was administered to 400 registered voters. Factor analysis, Cramer's V statistical measures of association, chi-square tests, and Spearman correlation coefficients were employed for the analysis and interpretation of the data. Tests and associations support three hypotheses; residents' perceptions of the impact of tourism are influenced by employment status and short-term residency. Greater lengths of residency, age, and annual income do not influence residents' perceptions.     

Perceived Social Impacts of Tourism by Residents in the OTOP Tourism Village,Thailand

This study aims to investigate the impacts of tourism development at Baan Tawai, the first OTOP Tourism Village in Thailand, and to examine the relationship between demographic factors and Baan Tawai residents' perceptions of the social impacts of tourism development. Data were collected using questionnaires. The finding is that the residents positively perceive social impacts in term of job creation for women in the village. Additionally, they do not see any social changes brought in by tourism and do not think that tourism leads to an increase in prostitution, vandalism, burglary, or drug abuse.     

Residents' Perceived Impacts of Gaming Development in Macau: Social Representation Perspectives

The purpose of the research was to provide a better understanding of local residents' perceived impacts of gaming tourism based on social representations theory. An empirical investigation was conducted in Macau, where gaming tourism is under explosive development. Through a survey of 396 local residents, two social representation groups were identified: “Ambivalents” and “Rationalists”. The two social representation groups presented significantly different perceptions and attitudes toward the impacts of gaming tourism in Macau. The three most significant factors that influenced residents' representations were personal income, perceptions of gaming tourism being able to increase personal/family income, and satisfaction with government performance in managing gaming tourism development. The research provides theoretical implications for future gaming impact studies and also practical ones for local governments and stakeholders in the tourism industry in Macau and other gaming destinations.     

Residents' Perceptions of the Impact of Cultural Tourism on Urban Development: The Case of Gwangju,Korea

Cultural tourism constitutes an alternative strategy of sustainable urban development for improving quality of life. The main objective of this type of tourism is to transform regions characterized by cultural resources into ideal places for vacation, residence or business. In this study residents' perceptions of cultural tourism were examined in a case study of Gwangju, Korea. It was found that the majority of the respondents were aware of the importance of cultural tourism and that they argued that it could contribute to urban development. The findings also suggest that there is a strong relationship between the respondents' characteristics and their perceptions of the impact of cultural tourism on urban development.     

An Examination of Changes in Residents' Perceptions of Tourism Impacts Over Time: The Impact of Residents' Socio-demographic Characteristics

This study investigates whether there has been a change in residents' perceptions of various tourism impacts over time and the impact of residents' socio-demographic characteristics on those changes. A survey of local residents (n?=?732 in 2004 and n?=?590 in 2009) was carried out for collecting the data for this study which was then followed by focus groups, conducted in 2012, consisting of academics, local residents and the tourism experts to validate the outcome from the survey. The results suggest that there has been significant increase in the level of agreement of the Sunshine Coast residents during this period on some of the tourism impacts such as job creation, attracting more investment, providing more business for local people and more cultural exchange between tourists and residents. The results also suggest that there is a significant decline in their perceptions of tourism negatively affecting the way of living of local residents and likelihood of residents suffering from living in a tourism destination. The residents also feel that there will be a decline in parks and other recreational areas for local residents with growth in tourism. The study also found that demographic variables such as age, gender, income, education and occupation are likely to influence residents' perceptions of tourism impact over time. Implications for future tourism development plans for the region are discussed.     

Residents' perceptions of the environmental impacts of tourism in the Lake Bosomtwe Basin,Ghana

This study investigates residents' perceptions of tourism's physical impacts in the Lake Bosomtwe Basin in Ghana. Data were based on a resident survey conducted in the basin in January 2006. Residents perceived both positive and negative impacts of tourism development, but were more inclined to the positive side. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the district assemblies in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism should start managing the impacts, and also educate the local population on the dangers of underestimating the negative impacts of tourism on the environment.     

Residents' Perceptions Towards Sociocultural Impacts Induced by Internal Migration

The economic development brought about by tourism often induces migration to an emerging tourism region. A constructivist paradigm with semi-structured interviews was employed. This paper aims to interpret residents' social constructions towards the sociocultural impacts of tourism-induced internal labour migration in a Thai context. Western studies assume there are clear negative and positive impacts of tourism development. These sociocultural impacts of tourism in the Western literature are applicable in a Thai context. However, most previous studies on sociocultural impacts of tourism look from the outside but it is significant that nobody has looked from an inside Thai perspective. Local residents in Koh Samui attribute the majority of sociocultural impacts to labour migration from the Isan region of Thailand. This paper starts with an analysis of labour forces in Thailand, and how tourism and labour migration are interrelated. In addition, the ethnic identity of the Isan people is examined.     

Exploring Factors Influencing Residents' Satisfaction with Tourism Development in Poverty-Stricken Areas: A Case Study of Five Poor Villages in China

As one of the key stakeholders in tourism development, residents' satisfaction with tourism development (RSTD) has an important effect on the alleviation of poverty. Despite its great significance, only limited research had been conducted by researchers to explore factors influencing RSTD in poor regions. To fill the void, this study built the proposed model of RSTD in poverty-stricken areas by structural equation modeling technique. The results indicated that (1) six key influencing factors, namely, perceived benefits of tourism development, perceived costs of tourism development, residents' participation in tourism development, distribution of personal benefits from tourism, residents' expectations for tourism development, and community attachment, were proved to be the antecedents of RSTD in poverty-stricken areas. (2) According to path coefficients between constructs, “distribution of personal benefits from tourism” was the most significant antecedent of RSTD in poverty-stricken regions. Furthermore, “residents’ participation in tourism development” also need to be paid more attention.     

Investigation on Visitors' Perceptions of Recreation Impacts in Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area in Taiwan

This research attempts to understand the visitors' perceptions of the environmental impacts caused by six recreational activities by using Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area in Taiwan. The six recreational activities were fishing, camping, trail use, swimming, biking and motorboating. It compared the visitors' perceptions of the recreation impacts before and after the environmental impact information was provided. The convenience sampling method was used during three weekends in August 2005. The results indicated that visitors in the study were aware of the environmental impacts caused by the six recreational activities. The most harmful activity among all was motorboating and the most harmless one was biking. In addition, different variables such as gender, age and preference influenced visitors' perceptions of the recreation impacts of different types of activity. Overall, after receiving the environmental information, the visitors' perceptions of all activities moved to being more harmful than their previous perceptions. This means the environmental impact information sheet given in the post-test did change the perception of recreational impacts. In general, visitors viewed their own activities as having fewer recreational impacts than non-participants, except for the boating activity.     

Residents' perceptions on tourism impacts

The limited explanatory research on residents' perceptions of tourism impacts has resulted in an underdeveloped theoretical orientation of research on this subject. This paper presents a social exchange process model as a theoretical basis for some understanding of why residents perceive tourism impacts positively or negatively. The model is based upon the concept of the exchange relation. Propositions are derived from the model to test the relationships between the model's components. These propositions have been developed from inferences based upon the social exchange literature.     

City Image and Perceived Tourism Impact: Evidence from Port Louis,Mauritius

Research suggests that the images residents hold about their community influence the political support for tourism. Yet, few researchers have investigated the image that local residents have of their own area. Borrowing from the existing literature on place image and residents' perceptions of tourism impacts, a theoretical model incorporating these two lines of research is developed and tested using data collected from residents of the city of Port Louis, Mauritius. It proposes four city image attributes as the independent constructs influencing residents' perceptions toward the overall impact of tourism development. These include social attributes, transport attributes, government services attributes, and shopping attributes. Overall impact of tourism development is considered to be a determinant of the level of support for the industry. Results of the structural equation modeling analysis indicate that residents' perceived levels of shopping attributes, transport attributes, and social attributes of the city influence their level of support for the tourism industry. The hypothesis relating transport attributes to overall impacts of tourism was not supported. The study provides some important considerations for local planners attempting to make tourism more supportive in the city.     

The Impact of Tourism on the Patagonian Coast,Argentina

Summary

The coasts of the Argentinean Patagonia aroused considerable interest when the nature-directed tourist boom took place. This paper is based on an analysis of literature pertaining to the impact of tourism on coastal areas in the province of Chubut-particularly in the area of the Valdes Peninsula included in UNESCO's World Heritage List-and its most important city, Puerto Madryn. The conclusion reached is that the implementation of a management plan which not only takes into consideration environmental aspects but also the participation of local inhabitants can result in sustainable development for the area.     

21世纪以来旅游社会文化影响研究的回顾与反思

旅游社会文化影响是旅游地理学研究的核心内容和热点问题。文章选取国内外权威核心刊物, 识别相关文献, 剔除无关文献, 梳理发展脉络, 从居民感知、文化变迁、地方身份和社会结构等4个方面, 对21世纪以来国内外旅游社会文化影响的研究内容进行分析, 总结理论方法。研究发现, 国内外研究领域的广度、深度不断拓展, 社区和旅游区的实证研究居多;在理论方法方面, 以相关学科的理论应用为主, 对自身规律的反思与总结较少, 理论提炼水平有限。最后, 鉴于地方全球化发展趋势, 从研究领域、理论方法、分析工具等方面反思与展望旅游社会文化影响研究的未来发展。     

审视阳朔旅游的发展:社会文化影响的调查与比较

针对30年来阳朔人的社会文化生活受到旅游业发展的影响,本文以对阳朔的社会调查结果为依据,解释了阳朔现象,对阳朔旅游的发展及其影响做了分析,对发展模式进行了评述,并与世界著名旅游目的地印度尼西亚的巴厘岛和美国的阿拉斯加的旅游发展及其影响进行了初步的比较。     

Local Perspectives on the Impact of Tourism on Religious Festivals in Bhutan

The Himalayan nation of Bhutan is known to embrace Gross National Happiness rather than Gross National Product as the measure of its people's well-being. Happiness, spirituality and cultural authenticity are prominent factors in Bhutan's tourism image, and these attributes are most clearly exhibited in the traditional festivals that are among the most popular attractions for many foreign tourists. This paper introduces the cultural practice of religious festivals in Bhutan and investigates how tourism may be affecting these festivals. Within this context, this paper reports on the findings of a survey of Bhutanese monks and lay people, regarding their impressions of the effects of tourists on one particular event – the Tsechu festival. With the Bhutanese government's aim to increase the number of annual tourists more than fourfold to 200,000 by 2018, this research provides a baseline study of the perceived impact of tourism on religious festivals and addresses the issue of whether such an increase in volume of tourists would pose a threat to the integrity and value of these festivals as perceived by Bhutanese people.     

浅议社会表象理论(Social RePresentation Theory)在旅游学研究中的应用

旅游作为一门跨多个学科领域的应用科学，其学科发展往往会涉及社会学、心理学、人类学、地理学等各相关学科的研究成果。而目前旅游学研究中具体实证研究有余而基础理论工作相对不足的局面已经阻碍了旅游学作为一个学科体系的确立、完善和向前发展。本文试对社会心理学中新兴的“社会表象理论”(Social Representation Theory)以及近年来国外学术界将该理论引入旅游学研究的基本情况作一个简单的介绍，以期能够为国内旅游学界的相关研究工作起到一点参考作用。     

Comparative Review of Research on Environmental Impacts of Tourism in English and Chinese Literatures

China is experiencing an increasingly high level of recreation and tourism use of its environments but only limited studies of the environmental impacts of tourism have been published. This paper is based upon a collection of research papers on the environmental impacts of tourism in English and Chinese, especially research on carrying capacity and the physical impacts of tourism. The paper compares the characteristics of research in English and Chinese literatures. It shows that China lags behind the western world in this research field. Chinese researchers need to: (1) be more critical of the feasibility of carrying capacity applications; (2) introduce new technologies in their research on vegetation and soil; (3) know more about the buffering effects of different kinds of tourist trails such as boardwalks, concrete trails, cross-tie trails, cobble trails and so on; (4) try to shed light on possible positive impacts of tourism; and (5) pay more attention to the protection of environmentally sensitive areas. The paper also discusses the dilemmas of research on carrying capacity and environmental impacts.     

Exploring the Impacts of Service Guarantee Strategy

This study examines the impacts of service guarantee in terms of consumers' perceived purchase risks, loyalty, complaint behaviors, and intent to use “word-of-mouth” within the context of the casual dining restaurant segment. The scenario method was developed and used to test the research hypotheses. The results of the study reveal that a well-executed service guarantee could reduce consumers' perceived purchase risks, and increase a positive word-of-mouth and customer loyalty. On the other hand, it also raises consumers' intent to complain upon service failure. Furthermore, the results of the study indicate that a “specific” service guarantee is much more effective in reducing consumers' perceived purchase risks, and increasing consumers' intent to claim after a service failure as opposed to an “unconditional” service guarantee. The results of the study suggest that a service guarantee offered by independent restaurants could offer a competitive advantage over brand restaurants not offering a service guarantee.     

Host perceptions of tourism: A review of the research

It has long been recognised that it is incumbent on those responsible for the planning of tourism to seek to optimise the well-being of local residents whilst minimising the costs of tourism development.It is not surprising, therefore, that academic attention has long been paid to the social impacts of tourism in general and to the understanding of host communities' perceptions of tourism and its impacts in particular. Nevertheless, despite the significant volume and increasing scope of the research, the extent to which understanding of residents' perceptions of tourism has been enhanced remains uncertain. Thus, the purpose of this Progress Review is to explore critically the development of the research into residents' perceptions of tourism. Highlighting key themes and trends in the literature, it identifies a number of limitations in the research, including a narrow case study base, a dependence on quantitative methods, a focus on perceptions as opposed to responses, and the exclusion of the tourist from the majority of the research. Consequently, it argues for a multidimensional approach to the research.