Determinants of locals' perceptions and attitudes towards tourism development in their locality

Abstract

This paper examines how two factors, namely the level of tourism development and the level of attachment to tourism, shape locals' attitudes and perceptions toward tourism development. The study uses data on tourists' perceptions and attitudes collected in four tourist towns in Israel, each place denoting a different level of tourism development. Using analysis of variance and Duncan tests, this study succeeded in supporting the hypotheses concerning the effect the level of tourism development and attachment tourism have on locals' attitudes and perceptions. The results show that the more the town is developed, the less positive the attitudes and perceptions shared by locals. Another finding was that as locals move from non-occupational affiliation to tourism to the higher posts in tourism occupations (managers and self-employed) the level of irritation from the negative impacts of tourism development decreases. The study has succeeded not just in substantiating the hypotheses claiming inter-settlement and inter-group differences in perceiving impacts of tourism development, but has also detected the determinants that shape these differences.