Impactos socioculturais do turismo em destinos urbanos

Abstract

Residents are important stakeholders of the tourism industry, influencing the development process of tourism destinations. On the other hand, urban areas are important destinations of cultural tourism, where residents perform a crucial role in the tourism development. The literature reveals that when residents perceive tourism benefits, they develop favourable attitudes towards tourism, that may result in a higher interaction level with visitors. Consequently, a higher interaction level between residents and visitors may have a positive impact in visitors' satisfaction and loyalty to destinations. In spite of the importance of this research topic, few studies have been undertaken to analyse the resident-visitor interaction and the factors that influence that interaction. The aim of this paper is to analyse the interaction level between residents and visitors in urban destinations and to analyse the factors that influence that interaction, giving special emphasis to the residents' perception of socio-cultural tourism impacts. In order to accomplish these objectives, a self-administered questionnaire was undertaken in a Portuguese city and 570 questionnaires were obtained. A PCA, correlations and regression analyses were carried out. The results reveal that the resident-visitor interaction level in Aveiro is not very high yet. Additionally, the perception of tourism socio-cultural benefits emerges as the factor that has the highest positive impact in the interaction level between residents and visitors. Based on the results obtained, strategies that agents responsible for tourism development should take into account in order to promote the sustainable development of tourism destinations are presented.