Resident perceptions of the impact of tourism on an Austrahan city

In this study, 508 residents of the Australian tourist city of Cairns rated the impact of tourism on a range of community facilities, as well as on individual and community life. Residents perceived major positive impacts within the economic sphere, major negative impacts on housing and crime levels, and overall perceptions of negative personal impact being associated with a change in the friendliness of local residents. Judgments about personal impacts were much more likely to be associated with perceptions of community enjoyment than were judgments about community impacts. Partialling out the effects of judgments of tourism’s impacts on individual and community life revealed the importance of perceived friendliness of local residents. The relevance of these findings for host communities and the tourist industry is discussed. Over the last few years a number of Australian communi-ties have experienced a quite considerable growth in tourist numbers. Indeed the popularity of Australia as a tourist destination has increased rapidly, with overseas arrivals doubling between 1986 and 1988. By the year 2000 it is expected to double in size again, and reach over 5 million (Bureau of Tourism Research 1988). It is predicted that such a long-term trend may have a marked effect upon host com-munities around Australia. While most governments focus principally upon positive economic benefits, there is now increasing recognition of the potential social and environ-mental costs (Lui, Sheldon, and Var 1987), and the necessity for a careful investigation of non-economic effects (Allen