New Perspectives of Residents’ Perceptions in a Mature Seaside Destination

Fernando Almeida-García,M Carmen-Hidalgo,Rafael Cortes-Macías,Antonia Balbuena-Vázquez

doi:10.3390/su12104183

Fernando Almeida-García, M Carmen-Hidalgo + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104183

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Abstract

This research examines the relationship between residents of a mature tourist destination and tourism. To do this, the place attachment and rootedness shown by the residents towards the place where they live are assessed, as are their attitudes and level of satisfaction towards tourism. To carry out the research, 770 surveys were completed in the city of Benalmádena (Costa del Sol, Spain). Unlike other previous studies on place attachment, the level of place attachment and rootedness are assessed separately, using a specific indicator for rootedness. The results show that place attachment and rootedness behave differently in relation to the attitude towards tourism. Another significant result is that residents’ attitudes towards tourism in this destination are positive, being more favourable among native residents. Finally, residents show a clear level of place attachment and satisfaction with tourism development, which seems to be related to remarkable social resilience. Despite the strong vulnerability of the mass tourism model, Benalmádena displays significant resilience due to its social structure.

Highlights

Tourism leads millions of people to move from their place of residence to a destination, which results in a series of effects on the receiving communities
As a novel contribution, we introduced a method for measuring the level of rootedness, which results from the aggregation of three variables: birthplace, birthplace of a parent, and birthplace of a child (Tables 8 and 9)
We mainly analysed the attitude of residents to the impacts of tourism and its connection to the following variables: place attachment, rootedness, tourism satisfaction, and time of residence by applying correlation analysis and linear regression (Tables 10 and 11), which provided significant results

Summary

Introduction

Tourism leads millions of people to move from their place of residence to a destination, which results in a series of effects on the receiving communities. The interactions and dependencies among the impacts are such that a holistic approach is necessary to understand how tourism affects local communities [6,7,8]. Based on these considerations, it may be convenient to combine attitude with other variables, such as place attachment, rootedness or satisfaction towards tourism. Knowledge of the attitude of the local community towards perceived impacts is important, but it is more important to consider how the negative consequences of tourist activity can be alleviated [8] In this way, the opinions of local residents can be a tool to take into account. The studies carried out in mature destinations are relevant since these areas are the most complex from the social and economic point of view and face the greatest challenges

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