Residents’ Perception towards Tourism Development: The Relationship between Economic and Environmental Impacts during Disruptive Events

Abstract

This study explores how a crucial measure can contribute to tourism impact research on residents and understand the standpoints among different resident groups. A stakeholder perspective demonstrates how residents in the public and private tourism sectors consider economic and environmental impacts. It probes differences in perceptions towards tourism impacts between these two stakeholder groups. Data are gathered among residents working in Macao’s private and public sectors. A semi-structured interview is used to collect data, with 14 interviews conducted. After the data analysis, significant differences are not found in residents’ opinions of both groups regarding economic and environmental impacts. Furthermore, the findings do not indicate the perceptions of negative environmental impacts can be mitigated if the number of tourists declines. The study contributes to the literature by adding the importance of residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts on the tourist destination and pursuing sustainable tourism planning and development. Findings are also relevant to Macao, using the traditional measures of residents’ perceptions, which may help raise support among residents of tourist destinations for future tourism development. Then, it can further help improve the sustainable tourism management of tourist destinations.