Residents’ Perceptions toward Tourism Development: A Case Study from Grand Canyon National Park, USA

Abstract

Although the impacts and challenges of tourism in towns and cities near protected areas have been studied extensively, there is a lack of both data and understanding that limits progress towards generalizable solutions, planning strategies, and guidance for addressing the increasing pressures affecting these communities. This article compares the factors influencing residents’ perceptions and local support of tourism in five gateway communities to Grand Canyon National Park. Importance–performance analysis (IPA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to assess the proposed measurements of perceptions and hypotheses concerning local support and to compare the relationships among selected variables, such as community participation (CP), living environment (LE), trust in tourism institutions (TT), tourism benefits (TB), community satisfaction (CS), and perceived tourism cost (TC). Four groups of factors influenced residents’ perceptions; these were classified into four stages based on their management priority. A gap between the desires of community residents for the development of national parks and community tourism and the current state of development was identified, suggesting that these communities would benefit from management measures to mitigate the impacts of tourism. Through SEM, five factors were verified as drivers of local support for national park tourism development, including community participation, living environment, trust in tourism institutions, tourism benefits, and community satisfaction. Perceived tourism cost was not found to be a significant driver.