Residents' attitudes to tourism: a longitudinal study of 140 articles from 1984 to 2010

• Published in: Journal of sustainable tourism 2013-01, Vol.21 (1), p.5-25
• Main Authors: Nunkoo, Robin, Smith, Stephen L. J., Ramkissoon, Haywantee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Attitude surveys; Attitudes; Biological and medical sciences; Consciousness; Content analysis; Environment and sustainable development; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Longitudinal studies; longitudinal study; Management; methodology; Research methodology; residents' attitudes; statistical techniques; Studies; theory; Theory Formation; Tourism; Travel; 内容分析; 居民态度; 理论; 研究方法; 纵向研究; 统计技巧
• ISSN: 0966-9582; 1747-7646
• DOI: 10.1080/09669582.2012.673621

This paper is a longitudinal study of 140 articles on residents' attitudes to tourism published in Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, and Journal of Travel Research from 1984 to 2010. Content analysis was used to determine the nature of the articles and the research approaches used. Although most articles were atheoretical, over the survey period an increasing proportion of studies made use of a variety of theories drawn from other disciplines to investigate the topic. The majority of studies were quantitative in nature, while a few studies used qualitative and mixed-methods approaches. Based on the results, some implications for research design and possibilities for future research are discussed. The paper concludes that studies on the topic have evolved from being low on methodological sophistication and theoretical awareness to being high on both aspects. Research on this topic has reached a stage of active scholarship in theory development followed by empirical testing. The study's limitations are discussed, which readers should take into account when evaluating its findings.