Authors: Evangelia Pappa, John Filos, Pantelis Papanastasiou

Title: Residents’ Attitudes toward tourism impacts of a Greek island destination

Abstract

The goal of the study is to evaluate residents’ attitudes towards tourism including their perception of the impact that tourism has on a destination in terms of its economic, environmental and socio-cultural structure. The sample refers to 303 local residents of a Greek popular tourist destination, Crete. Tourism impacts were assessed by a five point Likert scale to a set of 37 statements. Factor analysis identified five dimensions accounting for 65.12% of the total explained variance. There are two positive dimensions, one with infrastructure and services and another with local development. There are also three negative dimensions which are related to welfare and environment, increase of delinquency and high cost of living. The concluding remarks of the study are discussed, along with its limitations and recommendations for future research.