Perceived tourism impacts in municipalities with different tourism concentration

The paper investigates residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts in Koper and Piran municipality which are located on the Slovenian coast. The two municipalities have different tourism concentration defined as the ratio between the number of tourists and the number of residents. Specifically, the study attempts to explore differences between tourism impacts in the two municipalities. For the purpose of this study, tourism impacts are divided into economic, socio-cultural and environmental. Primary research was conducted on a sample of residents in the municipalities of Koper and Piran in April 2008. A survey was collected from111 residents in the study area. A descriptive statistics and t-test for independent samples were employed. The findings reveal that residents’ perceptions of tourism differ between municipalities which have different tourism concentration. In fact, residents in the municipality with the higher tourism concentration perceive more negative tourism impacts, whilst, on the other hand, they do not perceive more positive tourism impacts. Negative environmental tourism impacts were found in both municipalities. Positive as well as negative socio-cultural and economic tourism impacts were confirmed in Koper and Piran municipality. Recommendations for tourism policy makers and tourism managers are given