Linking Culture and the Environment

K.L. Andereck and N.G. McGehee 255
strongest predictive power of all the variables, with those who perceive more
benefit agreeing that tourism results in positive community influences and
disagreeing that it results in negative influences.
Resident support for tourism development is weakly explained by most
of the personal characteristics variables. The one characteristic that emerges
as a powerful predictor is frequency of visits to the tourism area of the community,
again probably because residents who use the amenities in these
areas are happy to have them available. It is also largely explained by personal
benefit from tourism with those feeling they get more benefit also
being more supportive. Three of the tourism attitude variables are related to
support in the way one would expect those with more positive attitudes and
those with less negative attitudes being more supportive of tourism development
in the community. A somewhat weaker variable is that of the community
level of tourism development, with those in more tourism-dependent
communities being less supportive of tourism development. Distance of
residence from the tourism area is also a predictor with those living farther
away being more supportive of tourism. Virtually all studies that have considered
the relationship between and among these variables have found
similar types of relationships to those found in the Arizona study (Long
et al., 1990; Perdue et al., 1990; Andereck and Vogt, 2000; Gursoy et al., 2002;
Sirakaya et al., 2002; Jurowski and Gursoy, 2004; Andereck et al., 2005).
The Future of Resident Attitudes Research
A review of the literature has demonstrated that after many years of research
being conducted in the area of resident attitudes towards tourism some general
conclusions are emerging. The demographic characteristics of people are
not strong predictors of attitudes or support for tourism, and the nature of
the relationship seems to vary from study to study. It may be that demographics
and other personal characteristics are simply not the best way to
predict people’s perceptions about tourism. Nevertheless, such characteristics
should continue to be included in research until it is clear that no pattern
exists. These kinds of variables may also be important for understanding the
role of tourism in individual communities. Some of the characteristics such
as frequency of visits to the tourism area and distance of residence from the
tourism area have not been thoroughly researched.
The variable that continually surfaces as being perhaps the most important
explanatory variable in all resident attitudes research to date is the personal
benefit residents receive from tourism. This has been measured in
several ways but nearly always comes forward as a significant predictor of
tourism attitudes and support for tourism development. The involvement
types of variables are also often significant, but the pattern is not as clear as
with benefits of tourism as these kinds of variables have not been thoroughly
researched. The stage of a community in its tourism development life cycle
also seems to have an effect on people’s attitudes but also requires more
research before conclusive statements can be made. Attitudes are predictors