Do Psychographic Variables Influence Resident Attitudes Towards Tourism? Evidence from Cordoba, Spain–A World Heritage City

Abstract

This study explores residents’ attitudes towards tourism in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within this context, our overall aim was to determine whether the host community’s attitudes towards tourism were shared by all members or, in contrast, were far from homogeneous. And if the latter, to characterize resident profiles to determine the specific factors behind the differences. In conjunction with the traditional sociodemographic factors, we also used new pioneering variables associated with the pandemic including two psychographic factors: perceived risk and perceived economic crisis. The empirical study was performed in a type of tourist destination seldom explored in terms of community segmentation: a World Heritage City. The results highlight that by using sociodemographic factors, dependence on tourism, and psychographic factors, it was possible to identify three different segments of residents. By using a decision tree in a novel way, it was determined that the psychographic factors show higher discriminant potential. Obtaining different resident profiles according to attitudes towards tourism is of paramount interest, especially for the correct management of sustainable tourism destinations. And even more so in the context of a crisis as it enables public tourism managers to design differentiated strategies for each profile aimed at maximizing support from the host community, given the importance of residents’ behavior as an integral part of the tourism product.