TITLE:
Tourism Management during Covid-19 Era: Evaluating Corfiots’ Perceptions
AUTHORS:
Evangelia Pappa, Georgios Kontogeorgis, Christos Livas, Alexandros Garefalakis
KEYWORDS:
Resident Perceptions, Tourism Impacts, Small Island, Tourism Management, Structural Equation Modeling, Covid-19
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.13 No.4,
August
29,
2023
ABSTRACT: Considering the importance of local
communities in the successful implementation of tourism management and
planning, the present study aims to investigate residents’ perceptions of the socioeconomic
impact of tourism on Corfu, a leading tourist destination in the Mediterranean
Sea. A survey of 340 residents of Corfu between 2021 and 2022 indicated that,
on average, the local community believed that tourism drives economic
development and leads to an increase in the cost of living on the island. Women
were less likely to acknowledge the positive economic effects of tourism on
Corfu and residents with lower educational levels were more likely to perceive
the adverse social effects of tourism on the local community. An examination of
the relationships among the dimensions of perceived tourism impact indicated
that tourism-driven economic development had a positive effect on high cost of
living and improvements in the destination’s physical environment.
Subsequently, residents perceived that high cost of living and improvements in
the physical environment contributed to alcohol consumption and criminal
activity at the destination. Using structural equation modelling, this study
provides an original examination of the interrelationships among the different
dimensions of perceived tourism impact and suggests ways to alleviate the
perceived negative effects of tourism activity.