Local People's Perceptions of Tourism: The Case of Edremit

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine the perceptions of the local population residing in Balıkesir/Edremit regarding the positive and negative economic, environmental, and sociocultural impacts arising from tourism development in the region, according to variables such as gender, marital status, age, education level, occupation, income level, and length of residence.
Data was collected using a survey method to measure the local population's positive and negative perceptions and their support for tourism in the context of the economic, environmental, and socio-cultural impacts caused by tourism development in Edremit. Data was collected from 395 volunteer participants residing in Edremit using a convenience sampling method. When examining the perceptions of the local population living in Edremit regarding the effects of tourism, economic effects, environmental effects, and finally socio-cultural effects are ranked in order of importance. When economic and environmental effects are examined, it was found that positive perceptions were higher than negative perceptions in both cases. However, when sociocultural impacts were examined, negative socio-cultural impacts were relatively higher than positive ones. In the context of support for tourism, it can be concluded that the vast majority of participants gave positive responses, demonstrating their support and acceptance of tourism.