Residents’ perceptions of the impacts of tourism in the Azores archipelago (Portugal): A cluster analysis

Abstract

The tourism industry has been increasingly viewed as an essential component of development processes, especially in certain low-density territories and islands. In turn, it is clear that residents play a fundamental role in the quality of tourists’ experiences and, consequently, for the success of a tourism destination. In this research, a cluster analysis was used to segment the residents of the Azores Archipelago (Portugal) in function of their perceptions of the impacts of the tourism industry. The analysis revealed the existence of three clusters: Optimistic residents, which corresponded to the large majority of the respondents; Moderately Optimistic residents; and Unconvinced residents. The results are in conformity with the common findings in the empirical literature, in particular in the case of emergent tourism destinations. Regional and national authorities should be aware of these results when designing their policies, in particular when pursuing sustainable development strategies.