A study of residents' perceptions and attitudes towards the tourism impacts

This research aims to analyze how a local community perceives the tourism’s impact and which socio-cultural, economic, and environmental factors affect the formation of the perceptions, attitudes and participation. In particular, the survey focuses on residing families in small towns of historical interest (belonging to the “I Borghi più belli d’Italia” Club, in Sicily, Italy) that, until recently, have remained isolated from tourism and lately they have been experiencing a good time due to sustainable tourism and to belonging to Club. Multivariate analysis are used for the analysis. The study showed that is widespread awareness that to belong to the Club has led and can continue to bring benefits to the territory and development of local tourist activity. The positive consequences are linked to economic reasons and to protection and preservation of the territory. In general, the people that have positive perceptions of the importance of the sustainable tourist development are more disposed to sustain and participate the future development. It is possible applied the proposed model to any destination with the aim to help manage residents’ perceptions, attitudes and their participation for tourism development.