Study On The Residents' Perceptions Of Tourism Impacts In Chinese Tourist Destinations

Residents are the core stakeholders of a tourist destination. Their perceptions of tourism impacts and attitudes towards tourism development have a great influence to tourism sustainable development. This paper has conducted a questionnaire survey to acquire first-hand data. It inquires into the residents' perceptions of tourism impacts and the differences of the perceptions among residents in different areas, and discusses the serviceability of some related theories abroad in china.This paper consists of 5 chapters: In chapter 1, the author briefly introduces the background, value and frame of this research paper. In chapter 2, the author makes a detail review of both abroad and domestic literatures on studies of residents' perceptions of tourism impacts. In chapter 3, the author introduces two theories relating the studies of residents' perceptions on tourism impacts—Tourism Development Cycle Theory and Social Exchange Theory. In chapter 4, the author inquires into the residents' perceptions of tourism impacts and the differences of the perceptions among residents in different areas. The first-hand data was acquired by a questionnaire survey covered 23 tourist destinations nationwide and SPSS vl3.0 was used as a tool for data analysis. In chapter 5, the author has come to some conclusions.The paper concludes that: 1) At present the positive perceptions of Chinese residents on tourism impacts are dominant. 2) Six factors relating to residents' perceptions of tourism impacts are identified, namely "Decline of life and environmental quality", "Economic increase", "Negative social impact", "Promotion of cultural exchange and development", "Improvement of infrastructure and resource protection", and "Community paying more than gaining". 3) The differences of the perceptions among residents in different Chinese tourist destinations are not so significant at present. The differences in perceptions mainly resulted from individual and demographic factors of the residents. 4) Residents in Chinese tourist destinations can be grouped into "positive supporters with an overall perspective" (34.0%), "ambivalent and rational supporter" (32.3%) and "positive but self-centered supporters" (33.7%). 5) For now, Social Exchange Theory is more applicable than Tourism Development Cycle Theory in china.