TOURISTS' PERCEPTIONS ABOUT TOURISM IMPACTS A LITERATURE REVIEW

The impacts of tourism on every society are complex and varied in subject. The tourism impacts are significant to different communities, groups and individuals depending upon their values, attitudes and the type of resources available for tourism development. Therefore, building on previous research, this paper examines the tourists' attitudes towards tourism impacts on their visiting destination; effect of socio-economic demographics and functional characteristics on their attitudes and different approaches, methods and statistical tools applied for measuring tourists' perceptions towards tourism development. Review of literature suggests that interactions between visitors and the host community can lead to short and long term positive and negative, individual and cumulative impacts on destinations across the globe. In respect of socio-economic and other functional characteristics of visitors, age, income and life stage have significant effects on tourist behavior and to assesss tourism development, the best approach would be an integrated cost-benefit approach.