Residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts in Guimarães (Portugal): a cluster analysis

In this investigation, a cluster analysis was used to separate Guimara˜es (Portugal) residents into clusters according to their perceptions of the impacts of tourism development. This approach is uncommonly applied to Portugal data and is even rarer for world heritage sites. The world heritage designation is believed to make an area more attractive to tourists. The clustering procedure analysed 400 data observations from a Guimara˜es resident survey and revealed the existence of three clusters: the Sceptics, the Moderately Optimistic and the Enthusiasts. The results were consistent with the empirical literature’s results, with the emergent nature of the destination found to be relevant. The fact that tourism is relatively recent in this destination has its major reflex in the devaluation by most of the residents of the negative impacts of tourism development.

Tourism impacts of a portuguese world heritage historic center: residents’ perspectives

The aim of this study is twofold. First, the study analyzes local community perspectives of the importance of the WHS classification of the historic center of Évora. Second, the study analyzes local residents’ perceived tourism impacts on the municipality of Évora. The methodology comprises quantitative research based on a self-administered survey applied to convenience samples of local residents of Évora in the beginning of 2014. The main results reveal that local residents have a strongly positive perception of the WHS designation. With regard to the perceived tourism impacts, a principal component factor analysis delineated three positive and three negative tourism impacts. The comparison of the mean scores of these factors across residents that live near and far from the historic center reveals that the most valued and least valued factors are common to all groups of residents. Nevertheless, in terms of positive impacts, the residents that live near the historic center revealed higher means than the residents that live far from it, whereas in terms of negative impacts, the latter group revealed higher means than former group.

Residents’ perspectives on tourism impacts of portuguese world heritage historic centers: Angra do Heroísmo and Évora

The aim of this study is twofold. First, the study analyzes local community perspectives of the importance of the World Heritage Site (WHS) classification of the historic centers of Angra do Heroísmo and Évora. Second, the study analyzes local residents’ perceived tourism impacts on the municipalities of Angra do Heroísmo and Évora. The methodology comprises quantitative research based on a self-administered survey applied to convenience samples of local residents of the two Portuguese municipalities in 2014. The main results reveal that local residents have a strongly positive perception of the WHS designation in both municipalities. With regard to the perceived tourism impacts, residents from Angra do Heroísmo have a stronger agreement about the impacts of tourism on their city than the residents of Évora, except for the negative social and cultural impacts. The comparison of the mean scores of these impacts across residents that live near and far from the historic centers reveals that the most valued and least valued impacts in the three categories of impacts (economic, social and cultural, and environmental) are common to all groups of residents. Nevertheless, residents living in or near the historic center of Angra do Heroísmo have higher means in the majority of tourism impacts (in all categories), with only one negative impact to concern the majority of respondents. Among the residents from Évora, residents living in or near the historic center have higher means in the majority of economic impacts but lower means in almost social and cultural impacts. With regard to the environmental impacts, residents living in or near the historic center have higher means scores in the positive impacts and lower means scores in the negative environmental impacts.