Evaluating the Sustainability Issues in Tourism Development: An Adverse-Impact and Serious-Level Analysis

Abstract

Sustainable tourism has become an increasingly important topic in tourism development research. This study attempts to identify a set of sustainability issues that negatively affect residents’ attitudes toward tourism development. This study extends the importance-performance analysis (IPA) into the “adverse-impact and serious-level analysis” (AISLA) to evaluate sustainability issues in tourism development. A survey was carried out with 430 residents in Macau. According to the results of AISLA, the government was recommended to take “concentration” actions to reduce the levels of impacts of some economic (including inflation, urban service charge, and housing price) and environmental (including noise pollution and destruction of natural landscapes) issues. Furthermore, the government of Macau should take “keep down” actions for most of the socio-cultural issues. This work provides a new perspective for the government to develop sustainable tourism.