Resident perceptions and responses to tourism: individual vs community level impacts

Abstract

This paper reviews resident tourism attitude research through the lens of the individual- and community-level perceived impacts of and responses to tourism. It explores how perceived impacts of tourism and responses to tourism development have been conceptualised and measured in the existing resident attitudes models published between 1990 and 2020. Three categories of variables were identified and used: antecedent variables, tourism impact variables, and dependent variables. The latter three categories are used to discuss the research topic from the lenses of improvements in measurement instruments. Finally, the paper suggests rethinking the overall conceptualisation of residents’ perceptions of and reactions to tourism – it proposes future research directions to distinguish between individual-level and community-level effects and reactions.