Predicting Effects of Demographics and Moderating Power of Engagement on Residents' Perceptions of Tourism Development

IntroductionResidents' positive perceptions toward tourism development will guarantee that tourism can add to the vitality of communities and that residents are strong advocates of tourism development. To ensure successful and sustainable urban tourism development, both external marketing messages (to visitors and tourists' generating markets) and internal marketing messages (to city residents and stakeholders) are just as important. Jurowski, Uysal & Williams (1997) note that internal marketing messages are imperative to explain the social benefits of tourism to residents looking to reduce opposition and to form a favorable destination image. To ensure successful marketing to the local community, an essential priority for a tourism authority is to attain a good understanding of residents' perceptions of urban tourism development. The active support of host communities can be crucial for successful tourism development (Gursoy and Rutherford, 2004). Urban tourism authorities now strive to understand how the public perceives the tourism industry in order to gain their support for tourism projects or initiatives (Harrill, 2004). If local residents become more aware of the positive characteristics of their regions, they are more likely to become ambassadors (Schroeder, 1996). Predicting role of demographic characteristics on residents' perceptionsAccording to Perdue et al. (1990), the importance of a community resident study on perceptions of tourism is twofold: (1) it helps to identify resident perceptions of tourism and (2) it helps to examine resident support for additional tourism development and specific development policies. Numerous studies have focused on residents' perceptions of tourism development and impacts (Brougham & Butler, 1981 ; Allen et at, 1988; Dieke, 1989; Perdue et at, 1990; Ap, 1992; Jurowski, Uysal & Williams, 1997; Schroeder, 1996; Chen, 2000; Chen & Hsu, 2002; Lui, 2003; Harrill, 2004; Gursoy & Rutherford, 2004; Andereck et ai, 2007; Died rich et al., 2009; Lee etal. 2010; Cu and Ryan, 2011; Vargas-Sanchez et ai, 2011, and Nunkoo & Gursoy, 2012). Few studies, however, have focused on residents' demographic characteristics in measuring their perceptions (Brougham and Butler's, 1981 ; Allen et at, 1988; Lindberg and Johnson, 1997; Andereck et ai, 2007). For instance, in Brougham and Butler's (1981) study, they consider age, gender, language, length of residency in an area and location relative to tourist movements as important factors in determining a resident's perception of tourism and stress that segmentation based on demographics is essential in determining differences in resident attitudes. People in different cultures have different needs, wants and attitudes (Irwin et at, 1990). Lindberg and Johnson (1997) demonstrate empirically that demographic variables, in general, affect attitudes through values. According to Andereck et al. (2007), segmentation by ethnicity as well as by age, gender and other factors is necessary to determine the differences and similarities between various segments of a resident population.The typical types of demographics for marketing are gender, ethnicity, age, and income which are commonly used in literature when measuring resident perceptions. Literature review indicates that there is a relative lack of interest in the demographic profiles when studying residents' perceptions which might be due to the inconsistent results identified in previous studies. For instance, ethnicity is considered to be an important factor explaining variations in attitudes toward tourism development (Um & Crompton, 1987) and in an urban tourism study by Williams and Chacko (2008), African Americans and Caucasians are observed to perceive city attributes differently. In addition, income is identified as a significant dimension in urban resident's attitude toward tourism (Perdue et at, 1990; Chen 2000). According to Wang and Pfister (2008), females are more likely to report benefits and enjoyments than males and males perceive less benefits from downtown revitalization and arts/cultural activities. …