Abstract
Tourism has been experiencing a rapid increase in the developed world, especially in China, and resident perceptions toward tourism development have been receiving increasing attention. However, resident perceptions on a large scale and the associated affecting factors remain unknown. In this study, 63 independent samples across China were analyzed using structural equation modeling, and the effects of three factors of per capita gross domestic product (GDP), tourist receipts and length of tourism development from the perceptive of economy, society and culture, and environment were investigated. Residents demonstrated a positive attitude toward tourism development on a large scale across China. However, the resident perceptions were GDP-dependent, which indicated a lower awareness of infrastructure improvement with the increase in GDP. Meanwhile, residents became more aware of environmental deterioration and social-order disturbance with the increase in the length of tourism development and tourist receipts. In addition, tourist receipts and length of tourism development exerted indirect effects on other perceptions by affecting the perception of environmental deterioration and economic improvement. Our results implied that to minimize the effect of negative perception, attention should be paid to the optimization of the perceptions of economic improvement and environmental deterioration, and the protection of the residential environment should be viewed as a high-priority task in improving resident perceptions.
Highlights
In the context of global sustainable development, tourism, as an environmentally friendly industry, plays an important role in promoting economic development, solving unemployment, and facilitating cultural communication at the destinations [1,2]
These results suggested that on a large scale across China, residents perceived tourism to promote economic development, improve socio-cultural conditions, and protect the environment
We discovered that residents demonstrated strong perceptions of the positive effects of tourism development on economic improvement, infrastructure improvement, and culture protection
Summary
In the context of global sustainable development, tourism, as an environmentally friendly industry, plays an important role in promoting economic development, solving unemployment, and facilitating cultural communication at the destinations [1,2]. Residents at tourist destinations are participants in the tourist activities and stakeholders in the tourism industry. The support of residents for tourism development determines their daily behavior and attitude toward tourists [3]. Resident support for tourism development is related to the sustainable development of destinations [4]. Resident support for tourism development is based on their perceptions of the influences of local tourism [5]. Investigating the directional changes, degree of change, and influencing factors of resident perception is important
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