The purpose of this study is to explore residents’ perceptions on tourism development and which factors influence their perception, on the island of Büyük ada in Princes islands Turkey. The conceptual framework of tourism impact dimensions is used to explore residents’ perceptions on tourism development and the framework of extrinsic factors is used to explorer which factors influence their perceptions.
The study presents an exploratory case study where the method consists of 12 semi-structured interviews with residents of Büyük ada and two unstructured interviews with key informants.
The findings reveal that the residents’ perceive the development of tourism mostly negative due to increasingly negative sociocultural and environmental impact and where the positive economic impact is perceived to be beneficial to the tourism industry and not for the general community. Factors influencing residents’ perceptions are found to be extrinsic factors: Stage of tourism development, seasonality, tourists/resident ratio and type of tourists and contextual factors: History and political context of the island and in Turkey.
As this research concerns the island of Büyük ada, within a particular framework, the findings may not be representative for all tourism destinations, but have many similarities with tourism development in Southern Mediterranean resorts and coastal areas, and are consistent with tourism impact literature.
The findings have further practical implications for future tourism development, where a key implication is to pursue sustainable development and the need for a multi-stakeholder involvement with a special emphasis on an integrated tourism policy by all levels of government. The study contributes to existing research by illuminating negative sociocultural and environmental impacts of tourism development perceived by the residents and the influence of extrinsic and contextual factors on residents’ perception.