engleski

Residents' Attitudes towards the Impacts of Tourism: A Case of Croatian Urban Destinations

As a global phenomenon, tourism exerts various impacts on the environment and economy of the locations in which it takes place. The impact of resident and tourist interaction on destination choice is significant as well. Recent studies underscore the connection between the following: the role that residents play, their attitudes towards the impact of tourism, the level of tourism development, the residents’ involvement in tourism activities, seasonality, the ratio of residents and tourists, and types of tourists in a destination. These also indicate the local population’s indifference about the involvement in destination management, which stems from the negative impact of politics on a destination, as well as from the influence of key stakeholders. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that influence the residents' attitudes toward the impact of tourism. This paper also determines the residents’ satisfaction with current tourism development and the effects of tourism, presuming that they found its economic effects to be more important than its negative effects. In the Republic of Croatia, tourism is highly developed only in the Adriatic, but not in the Continental part of the country. Therefore, this paper looks into the residents' attitudes toward the impact of tourism in those two areas. It presents the results of research conducted with the residents of eight urban destinations in the Republic of Croatia (Adriatic and Continental Croatia). The survey, conducted in 2017, aimed at identifying factors that influenced the residents' attitudes towards the impact of tourism. For this purpose, a structured questionnaire was used. The obtained data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The differences between residents' attitudes toward the impact of tourism are visible when speaking about tourism development level, current involvement, and plans for future inclusion in tourism destination offering. Residents are mostly satisfied with the effects of tourism, although they notice some negative effects as well. A higher tourism development level requires intensive involvement of the local population, and their role in destination management is even more important. Accordingly, residents should actively participate in tourism activities which aim to increase the tolerance threshold for tourist movements in destination and sustainable tourism. In this context, such involvement and behaviour should decrease certain negative effects of tourism. Therefore, research results are used to point out some aspects of destination management and involvement of residents aiming at relieving the pressure that tourism exerts on urban destinations and improving the quality of life and satisfaction of the local population.

Impact of tourism ; residents' attitudes ; urban destinations ; sustainable tourism

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