Assessing the Perceptions of Local Communities on the Effects of Tourism in Aksum City, Ethiopia
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2022-06-22
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study tried an attempt to assess the perception of local community in Aksum city towards the effects of tourism, sociocultural, economic and environmental. Closed-ended questionnaires and open-ended interview were developed, and distributed close ended questionnaires to three hundred sixteen residents of the city. The methodological approach of the study was described as a case study of Aksum within the qualitative and quantitative descriptive survey domains. It was relied on both primary and secondary data. Simple random sampling and purposive sampling procedures were used. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods were employed. Results from the study finding indicated that tourism development is significantly affected by residents' perception and there is perception difference among the local communities. Based on the result, negative impacts were less known by the residents. Moreover, there is a link between support of tourism development and perception. Furthermore, there is perception difference across the socio-demographic factors of income, residents' attachment to tourism, education status, marital status, age, occupation status and sex. In addition, respondents perceived economic impacts of tourism favorably, followed by environmental impacts and socio-cultural impacts. Majority of the local community replied “Agree” for the effect questions. In addition, there is a strong relationship between residents' perception of tourism effect with sustainable tourism development. Creating awareness through training programs, seminars and workshops; and inclusion of tourism concepts in primary and secondary school books were recommended in order to shape and improve the perceptions of the local community.
Description
Keywords
Perception, Tourism Effects, Local Community