Understanding resident perceptions of tourism impacts

Abstract

The study of perceived tourism impacts has been dominated by two research methods - structured surveys and ethnographic case studies and each of these research traditions has been the subject of criticism. The survey research tradition has been seen as limited because of its reliance upon researcher generated lists of impacts and the restricted nature of the measurement of these impacts. The qualitative approaches have been challenged by the problem of dealing systematically with substantial amounts of information. This paper described one attempt to use a mixed method approach to address both these problems. The research combined the qualitative technique of an unstructured group interview with the summarising potential of the quantitative statistical technique of multidimensional scaling analysis. The research method also included participant input into the interpretation of the output from the MDS analysis. The results indicated that the method was successful and generated perceptions of tourism impacts that were complex and multidimensional and included characteristics such as causes, perceptions of reversibility and perceptions of ability to be controlled or changed.