Residents’ perceptions of tourism development: A case study of the Issyk-Kul Lake region, Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to examine residents" perceptions of tourism development and its impact in the Issyk-Kul Lake region, as this is the most visited region of Kyrgyzstan. Accordingly, importance-performance analysis (IPA) was used to evaluate socio-economic, socio-cultural, and environmental attributes to better understand locals" perspectives on tourism development. Among the 38 items measuring the tourism development impact in the region, there are no items identified for the "Possible overkill" quadrant. Fifteen items fall in the "Keep up the good work" quadrant, which shows high performance and importance values. Another fifteen items fall in the "Concentrate here" quadrant, meaning that local residents perceive the attributes as important, but the perception of performance levels is below average. The gap analysis further supports the general finding from this study that there is no discernible difference between performance and importance attributes. The study showed that overall respondents gave importance a higher rating than performance. In general, when importance values exceed performance values, tourism development can be deemed positive. Unlike previous studies, this study addresses an understanding of the socio-economic, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts of tourism in the region from the local residents" perspective.