Urban residents' attitudes toward tourism development: the case of Crete

This paper focuses on the identification and explanation of the attitudes of a sample of urban residents towards tourism development on Crete and their grouping with respect to these attitudes. Urban residents of Crete are quite strong in their support for tourism. However, the residents are not homogenous in their perceptions of tourism development. Education and employment in tourism were found to be the major single factors affecting the attitudes of residents of the island. A segmentation procedure based on attitude statements produced three clusters: the ‘Advocates’ (identified by their high appreciation of tourism benefits); the ‘Socially and Environmentally Concerned’ (characterised by a consensus towards the environmental and social costs from tourism expansion); and the ‘Economic Sceptics’ (who showed lower appreciation of tourism’s economic benefits). The findings of the study are discussed with reference to the social exchange and the social representations theories and the conclusions of the study are provided.