engleski

Is There a Need for Local Environmental Policy Creation Regarding Tourism Impacts

The main purpose of this paper is to determine the local residents’ attitude differences and to segment them into diverse groups regarding their consciousness of environmental tourism impacts in order to define the need for creation of local environmental policy. The empirical research was conducted in the period from May 1st 2015 to May 1st 2016 on a convenient sample of 1, 339 local residents living in the City of Dubrovnik (The Republic of Croatia). Cluster analysis and ANOVA were used for data analysis. The findings indicate the existence of three different segments based on local residents ́ attitudes toward environmental tourism impacts. Also, education as a socio-demographic variable, together with spatial and temporal ones has been found statistically significant. Outcomes of this paper show the general absence of environmental consciousness which implies the necessity for environmental policy creation through the process of increasing local residents’ level of awareness toward environmental tourism 105impacts. Local residents and their passive and active involvement in environmental policy making are an important factor of quality and sustainable tourism development.

local residents ; segmentation ; cluster analysis ; environmental policy

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