Author(s)

L. Pennington-Gray

Abstract

Research on residents’ attitudes towards tourism development and support for tourism has been a focus of the tourism research since the 1970s. Research has indicated that several factors affect residents’ support for tourism. They include host-guest interactions, length of residency in the community, economic reliance, social representations and impacts, and environmental impacts. Several researchers have suggested that community attachment and length of residency influence resident’s support for tourism. This study will test which of these variables has a greater influence on resident’s support for tourism. Keywords: community attachment, length of residency, support for tourism, beach community. 1 Introduction Research on residents’ attitudes towards tourism development and support for tourism has been a focus of the tourism research since the 1970s [1–6]. Research has indicated that several factors affect residents’ support for tourism. They include host-guest interactions [7], length of residency in the community [8,9], economic reliance [10], social representations and impacts [11], environmental impacts, resource use and community attachment [12]. Juroski [12] in her dissertation showed the importance of community attachment versus length of residency on support for tourism. One of the important findings was that use of the resource was negatively correlated with support for tourism, where increased use correlated with decreased support.

Keywords

community attachment, length of residency, support for tourism, beach community.