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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Despite extensive research into the residents’ perceptions of sustainable tourism development (STD) over the past few decades, there has been little exploration of emerging destinations in low-density regions. This study uses a bidirectional analysis to segment the residents of a historic town in the north of Portugal (Lamego), which is part of the Douro World Heritage delimitation. This study applies a factor-cluster analysis to a sample of 250 residents of this historic town on their perceptions of community involvement, local government management of tourism (LGMT), perceived risk, community attachment, tourism impacts, economic dependence, and support for STD. Residents were clustered according to their community involvement and their perceptions of the effectiveness of LGMT. The findings reveal that three clusters of residents were identified: ‘Advocates,’ ‘Disinterested,’ and ‘Conditional supporters.’ The findings support that these groups exhibit dissimilar levels of community attachment, perceived tourism benefits, economic dependence, and support for STD. The three clusters had no significant differences regarding perceived costs and perceived risk. Furthermore, there are significant differences between the three clusters based on almost every socio-demographic variable used. The results reinforce the importance of analyzing the residents’ perceptions in the planning and decision-making policies for STD. Contributions of these findings to the body of knowledge and managerial implications are discussed.