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Bachelor’s thesis

Tourism Behavior

- A study of how tourism behavior effects the social carrying capacity at a destination

Authors: Siri Arktedius, Ebba Granbom & Anton Neuberg Supervisor: Solène Prince Semester: Autumn19 Subject: Tourism science

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Abstract

Today, traveling is a part of most people’s lives. It is known that traveling has many different effects, such as economic and environmental. However, it is less discussed how much tourism affects the social aspects. This study will discuss the behavior of tourists when they visit a destination, and how it affects the local community, and therefore affects the social carrying capacity of the host destination. Social carrying capacity is a relatively new concept, that focuses on the locals’ attitude and tolerance of tourists and tourism. This study will discuss social carrying capacity, tourist behavior and the host community. Through qualitative interviews, we have obtained various stories about how locals at tourist destinations experience tourists, and how tourist behavior affects the social part. We found that the locals’ perception of tourists and tourism can vary depending on several reasons, but also that it is hard to conclude how locals perceive tourism at a destination, since social carrying capacity is more complex since it relates to a subjective meaning rather than quantifiable data.

Keywords: carrying capacity, social carrying capacity, tourism behavior, locals’

attitude and tourism impacts.

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Acknowledgements

Firstly, we would like to thank our supervisor, Solène Prince, for supporting us during the process of writing this thesis. By giving us valuable feedback and guidance that led us to the final product. We would also like to thank our nine respondents who took the time to participate in our interviews and made this study possible. Finally, we would like to thank our opponents that gave us constructive feedback.

Thank you all!

Siri Arktedius, Ebba Granbom and Anton Neuberg

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction ... 1

1.1 Background ... 1

1.2 Problem discussion ... 2

1.3 Research question ... 3

1.4 Purpose ... 3

2 Method ... 4

2.1 Execution and Structure ... 4

2.2 Selection and Respondents ... 6

2.3 Qualitative and Semi-structured Interview ... 8

2.4 Interview Questions ... 10

2.5 Analytical Method ... 11

2.6 Ethic ... 12

2.7 Critical Aspects ... 13

3 Literature review ... 15

3.1 Social carrying capacity ... 15

3.2 Tourism behaviour ... 19

3.3 Host communities ... 24

4 Analysis of Empirical and Theoretical Data ... 29

4.1 Too many tourists makes it too crowded for the locals ... 30

4.2 Different tourists have different behavior ... 32

4.3 Lack of knowledge ... 33

4.4 Different and similar cultural background ... 36

4.5 Perceived economic benefits ... 39

5 Discussion of Analysis ... 40

6 Conclusion ... 44

References ... 46

Appendix 1 - Interview Guide ... 55

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1 Introduction

In this chapter, background information about the topic will be presented, but also the issues with the topic, which will be discussed in the problem discussion. The research question of this study will also be presented, and finally, the purpose of this study will be discussed.

1.1 Background

The tourism industry has increased a lot in the past few decades and continues to increase. This results in that more and more people travel and explore new destinations and places (UNWTO, n.da). Naturally, some destinations are more popular than others are, and with the increasing number of tourists, it is common that some destinations suffer from too many tourists. Since the tourism industry continues to grow, the number of tourists visiting popular destination increases as well, which means that the issue with too many tourists on popular tourism destinations is a growing problem (UNWTO, n.db).

Too many tourists on a destination can affect the carrying capacity of the destination, which refers to the maximum number of tourists a destination can handle, in several ways. Carrying capacity is a concept that authors define in different ways. According to Cooper (2016), the definition of carrying capacity within tourism, is how to

develop the tourism at a destination in a sustainable way, and to use the resources on a destination without affecting the local community on the destination in a negative way. Mathieson and Wall (1982) however, defines carrying capacity as the

maximum number of visitors who can visit a location without affecting it in a negative way, either physically or in a way, which decreases the quality of the experience for the tourists. Sometimes the concept of carrying capacity can be mistaken for meaning the same thing as sustainable tourism. However, there is a distinct difference between the two concepts. Even though both carrying capacity and sustainable tourism focus on sustainability, carrying capacity tend to refer to local issues, while sustainable tourism usually refers to global issues (Saarinen, 2006).

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How much and in what ways a tourist affects the carrying capacity of a destination depends on the behavior of the tourist. The travel behavior of the tourist has changed the past few decades, as the tourism itself has developed. According to Swarbrooke and Horner (2008), you can divide different tourist behavior by studying the

historical development of tourism. The difference of behavior can depend on where you come from and how the tourism in that region has developed historically. The general attitude towards tourism in that region can have an impact on how you as a tourist behave when traveling. Different tourist behavior can also be developed from different types of tourism, and different purposes of traveling. The result of the interaction between the tourists and the local can also depend on how similar or different their cultural background is. If they have a very different background, it is likely that they behave in different ways, which can lead to misunderstandings (Swarbrooke & Horner, 2008).

If the tourists behave in a way that upsets the locals it could disturb the social carrying capacity, which is what this study will focus on. Social carrying capacity refers to how many tourists a destination can handle without affecting the locals in a negative way. Many different ways within the aspect of tourism behavior can result in exceeding the social carrying capacity of a destination (Navarro, et al., 2013;

Saveriades, 2000). Some of the aspects discussed are cultural differences, different types of tourists and the locals’ perspective of tourism.

1.2 Problem discussion

The tourism industry has increased a lot the past decades and is still increasing (UNWTO, n.da). Naturally, some destinations are more popular than others, and the fact that people travel more and more results in that some destinations get a lot of tourists. If a tourist destination gets too many tourists, it can result in exceeding its social carrying capacity. However, it is not only the number of tourists on a destination that affects the social carrying capacity; it is also the behavior of the tourists. If the tourists behave in a way that upsets the locals, or if the number of tourists is too high, it can disturb the social carrying capacity of a destination. The increase of traveling has also led to more interactions between cultures, which can be

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problematic, and can be one of the main reasons to an upset local population (Navarro et al., 2013).

There is a lot of previous research about how tourism affects the ecological and economic carrying capacity of a destination, and how this affects the locals (Brown, et al., 1997; Lee, 2012; Marsiglio, 2017). However, there is little existing qualitative research about how exceeding the social carrying capacity affects the destination and its locals (Deery, 2012; Saveriades, 2000). There is also a lack of research on how tourism behavior affects the social carrying capacity on the destination, and how tourism behavior can affect the locals’ view of tourism (Deery, 2012). When searching for previous research, we used keywords such as tourism behavior, social carrying capacity, over tourism, mass tourism, locals’ perception, residents’

perception, social effects of tourism etc. However, the search results of these

keywords are mostly literature about ecological and economic effects of tourism and over-tourism. This is why we believe it is important to pursue qualitative studies about the social effects of exceeding the carrying capacity of tourist destinations.

1.3 Research question

How do locals perceive tourism behavior at their destination?

1.4 Purpose

The purpose of this study is to describe how tourism behavior affects the social carrying capacity at a destination and how the locals perceive it. It describes which aspects within social carrying capacity that are affected and how. Since we are focusing on social carrying capacity, we focus on the locals at the destinations and their experience of tourism and tourists. By interviewing locals from different tourism destinations, we get their perspective on tourism behavior, which helps us explain how it affects them. By combining the empirical data consisting of the locals’ perspective of the issue with literature about tourism behavior and social

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carrying capacity, the study will present a detailed description of how tourism behavior can affect the social carrying capacity on a destination.

Why this study is interesting and relevant is because carrying capacity is usually discussed from an environmental or economic point of view. The tourist behavior is varying and to see its effects on different destinations is important. Therefore, we have researched how locals in different destinations view tourism and tourists, to be able to answer how tourism behavior affects the social carrying capacity of a

destination and how the locals perceive it.

2 Method

Method is the process of collecting data for a study (Smith, 2017). Our phenomenon is not a well-discussed subject and therefore we have used an inductive approach.

This means that we started our research in the field and studied our chosen

phenomenon. By finding themes and categorizing them, we then found support in the literature. Since we want to understand experiences and understand reality, we have been objective and have used a hermeneutic method. The empirical data was

collected through a qualitative method, since a qualitative method tend to give you detailed answers with opinions and experiences (Bryman, 2011; Ryen, 2004; Smith, 2017), which is useful for this study. To collect the qualitative data, we used semi- structured interviews with nine respondents from different tourism destinations. In this chapter, we will describe in detail how we collected our data and analyzed it.

2.1 Execution and Structure

Since this study is based on a qualitative approach, we chose to collect the empirical data through semi-structured interviews, to get as detailed answers as possible. When it was decided that the data would be collected through semi-structured interviews, the next decision was who to interview. Our idea was to interview locals at tourism destinations. However, there could have been an issue with feasibility. Since the respondents live faraway, it could have been hard to reach people who were willing

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to do the interviews. If this problem would have arisen, we would have changed perspective and chosen to interview potential tourists instead, who would have been easier to reach since we could contact them in person. However, this issue did not occur. We interviewed nine respondents, which was the number of interviews we aimed for. To ensure high reliability, we made sure that all respondents have been locals in their cities for many years, since this gives us a more reliable result of our study.

Preferably, the interviews would have been done in person, since it is more personal, and it is personal answers we want. However, since the respondents live far away, some in different countries, it was not an option to visit every respondent in person.

Therefore, we decided to do the interviews by phone. That way, the respondents still had the possibility to give long, detailed answers, and it was still be possible to record the interview. We chose to audio-record the interviews, rather than taking notes, since it gave us the opportunity to fully focus on the respondent, instead of struggling with paying attention to the respondent and his or her answers at the same time as writing. Eight of the interviews were done by phone while recording the conversation and one was done by audio-message, which means that it was also recorded. Once an interview was completed, the answers were transcribed. When all interviews were completed and transcribed, we compiled the data and analyzed it.

Audio-recording the interviews also increases the validity and reliability of the interviews, because it ensures that nothing from the interviews was forgotten and left out, which would have decreased the validity and reliability of the data. Validity is if the data we collected is valid. By using audio recording, we gave all researchers involved in this study the opportunity to listen to the recordings to ensure that the answers to the questions were correct before coding the data. This way, we ensured that the data is valid (Bryman, 2016).

When writing the questions for the interviews, we focused on only including questions that would give us answers that would help us answering our research question. Based on personal experiences and literature about our topic we created the questions for the interviews. It was important to formulate the questions in a clear way so that all respondents would perceive them in the same way. The order of the questions is also important (Smith, 2017). To make sure that the questions were

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formulated in an understandable way, and that the questions where relevant for our study, we conducted two pilot interviews. After doing the first pilot interview, we did not fully get the answers we were expecting. The order of some questions was

changed, some were rephrased, some replaced, and some deleted completely. The second pilot interview resulted in a satisfying outcome. By doing pilot interviews before doing the real interviews, we ensured that all questions were understandable, which increases the validity of the empirical data.

2.2 Selection and Respondents

The selection of the respondents is based on where they live geographically, rather than on characteristics, such as gender or age. We wanted to interview people who live in places with many tourists, which is why we chose them based on geographical location.

According to Sirakaya-Turk (2011), the respondents in a qualitative research should not represent a larger population; they should instead be rich on personal

information. In our case, we have selected nine people who live in a city with many tourists for many years, which gave us the access to the information we needed. For us, access could have been an issue since the respondents we interviewed live far away. Since we do not have contact with people all over the world, it was not

possible to choose just any destination. We solved this problem by choosing tourism destination where we know people, and therefor had access to.

Since we did qualitative semi-structured interviews, nine interviews where a good amount. We contacted the respondents through Facebook, text message and Whatsapp. A description of our study and why we were interested in interviewing them were sent out. Over time, we received answers of their willingness to

participate. Out of nine people, we contacted, only one did not answer. However, we were able to replace that person with a new respondent. Later on, the respondents got more information about the interviews. Within three weeks, everyone was

interviewed, and we were able to transcribe and code the interviews.

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Our respondents have one thing in common; they are all locals at a destination where there are a lot of tourist. In order to get a wider perspective of how everyone

perceives and experiences tourism in their city, we have not conceded importance to age or gender. All our respondents will be presented with their names and their place of residence and why we think they are relevant to our study below.

Jesper Andersson Falsterbo 2019-11-26 23 minutes Annika Arktedius Gothenburg 2019-11-25 20 minutes

Bianca Baikie London 2019-11-28 17 minutes

Amanda Derksen Stockholm 2019-11-24 40 minutes

Rickard Granbom Österlen 2019-11-24 17 minutes

Bente Kruger Amsterdam 2019-11-24 25 minutes

Uschi Nijhuis Amsterdam 2019-11-25 19 minutes

Pauliina Vouri Copenhagen 2019-11-25 13 minutes

Susanne Warren Brussels 2019-12-02 17 minutes

To get a deeper understanding of the destinations our respondents live in, each destination will be presented together with each respondent and why it is important to our study

Jesper Andersson is a resident in Falsterbo, Sweden. Falsterbo is a small town in the south of Sweden where tourists tend to visit during the summer. In the same area of Sweden, Österlen is located, where Rickard Granbom lives, it is also a destination were most tourists visit during the summer period. These two destinations differ from the rest of our selected destinations, which are bigger cities with tourism all-year- around. The reason why we choose these two destinations is because of the high tourism numbers during the summer, and we thought it would be interesting to see how the locals are affected during that time.

Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden with tourism all year around.

Annika Arktedius is a resident in the suburb of Gothenburg. Gothenburg is known for its seafood and for the amusement park Liseberg. The last Swedish respondent is

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Amanda Derksen, she lives in Sweden's capital Stockholm. It is the biggest city in Sweden, and just like Gothenburg, it attracts many tourists all-year-around and the main attractions are the royal castle and the old town. A close by country to Sweden is Denmark and the next destination is the capital Copenhagen. It is known for its buildings and its beer. It is also known for the amusement park Tivoli, which attracts tourist all-year-around. Our respondent Pauliina Vouri lives there. Further down the continent we chose two respondents from Amsterdam, Bente Kruger and Uschi Nijhuis. The city is the capital of the Netherlands and is known for their tulips and the red-light district and weed consumption. Next respondent, Susanne Warren, is a resident in Brussels. Brussels is the capital of Belgium and main center for the European Union (EU). The EU headquarter is in the center of the city and it is the international meeting point for all European countries’ parliaments. Also, the headquarter of Nato is situated in Brussels. The city is also famous for its fries, mussels and its many different beers. The last destination, where our last respondent lives, is the city London. London is the capital of England and is the biggest city we have interviewed someone from. London is known for offering a lot of musicals and shows in the West End, the sights Big Eye, Big Ben and the Queens home,

Buckingham Palace. As stated above, all the destinations have the characteristics of a tourism destination which makes them relevant for this study.

2.3 Qualitative and Semi-structured Interviews

Since the purpose of our study is not to measure statistics, but rather to get detailed opinions of the respondents, we chose to collect our data through qualitative interviews, instead of surveys. A qualitative method is used when you want words rather than numbers. Qualitative interviews tend to give you longer, more detailed answers, such as opinions and experiences (Smith, 2017), which is what we are looking for in this study. We wanted to know how the respondents experience tourism at their destinations, and their opinions on tourism behavior related issues, which are typical questions for a qualitative interview.

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Since we are three researchers doing this study, we divided the respondents between us, to be time efficient. Because of the fact that it was not the same person doing all interviews, we decided to do semi-structured interviews. A semi-structured interview follows a predefined interview guide with specific questions but allows the

interviewer to ask supplementary questions (Cheia, 2010; Smith, 2017). By having a predefined interview guide, we could make sure that all interviewers would ask the respondents the same questions, which is important when analyzing the answers.

Being able to ask supplementary question was also important, since it gave us the possibility to ask the respondents to develop their answers if we felt like they did not give us enough information. Since this study is based on the opinions and

experiences of the respondents, it was very important to get detailed answers to the interview questions. The interview guide consists of 20 questions concerning the respondents view of the tourism and tourists at their destination. The questions concern various aspects within tourism at a destination, such as tourism behavior, cultural aspects etc.

Qualitative, semi-structured interviews are usually done in person or by phone, since it gives the respondent the possibility to speak more freely (Smith, 2017). Since our respondents live far away, and it was not a possibility to meet them in person, phone interviews were a good option for us. However, not all respondents had the time to do a phone interview, and therefore, one of the interviews was done by audio message.

When using semi-structured interviews as the method of collecting data, you usually do not have the possibility to interview a large amount of people, since it is a time- consuming process (Smith, 2017). This was the case in this study as well; we interviewed nine people in total. The downside with using semi-structured interviews, or a qualitative method in general, is that since you do not have the possibility to interview a large amount of people, you cannot generalize the answers and apply it to a larger group of people, since it is not a representative sample (Smith, 2017). However, in this study this was not an issue, since the purpose of this

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research was not to measure the impacts of tourism behavior on tourism destinations, but rather to get a personal view from the locals.

2.4 Interview Questions

When creating the interview guide, we based the questions on the little existing literature about the topic, but also on personal experience gained from traveling, news etc. We choose questions concerning common issues connected to the topic, some directly connected to tourism behavior and social carrying capacity, and some indirectly connected. To give a clearer picture of the questions asked, we will present some of the questions below. Find the complete interview guide with all 20 questions in appendix 1.

One of the questions asked was “How does tourism/tourists affect your everyday life?” This is an open question, which gives the respondents the possibility to share their everyday experiences with tourists. By asking this question, we could see how much and how often the respondent is in contact with tourists, which can affect the answers to other questions. This question also tells us if the respondent is working with tourism, which could be interesting when it comes to their view of tourism.

In two questions regarding the impacts of tourism, the respondents are asked about the positive and negative effects of tourism in their city, and the questions go “What positive (question 6)/negative (question 7) impacts do you believe the tourism has for your city?” Again, the respondents can express themselves freely and give their opinions and experiences of the impacts of tourism in their cities. Here, you quickly understand if the respondent has a positive or negative view of the tourism in their city, and they explain why and give examples.

Culture can be a delicate issue and can have both positive and negative effects. A culture related question is “In what way do you think the tourists affect the culture of your city?” When answering this question, the respondents are led to give examples and describe the effects of culture, which gives detailed answers to the question. In the answers to this question as well, the respondents’ view of tourism is very clear.

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One of the questions concerning tourism behavior is “How do you experience tourists behavior while moving around in the city?” This question is indirectly connected to earlier questions about contacts with tourists. As expected, tourists effect the commute of many of the respondents. In the answer of this question, the respondents can describe more detailed how.

This is just a few of the interview question. The topics connected to the rest of the questions are as follows: the tourists’ behavior, the locals’ behavior, tourism organizations, tourism impacts, cultural aspects, tourism attractions and staged tourism. Together these questions are shaped to give us the answer to our research question.

2.5 Analytical Method

According to Bryman (2016), every researcher should use an analytical method when analyzing empirical data. We have chosen a theme analytical method. A theme analytical method is useful when analyzing qualitative data. It is also a suitable way to analyze the answers of the semi-structured interviews, since theming and coding the answers make it easier to categorize them. When using a theme analytical method, the researcher is searching for themes in the answers of the interview. One issue when using a theme analytical method is that different researchers can define different themes differently (Bryman, 2016). To avoid this issue, we analyzed the themes together. Bryman (2016) states that a problem with theme analytical method is that often in a study, the researcher says that he or she has used a theme analytical method; however, this is not clearly stated in the study. This made us aware that we clearly have to present how we used a theme analytical method to analyze our empirical data, which we are doing in the next paragraph.

When all empirical data was collected, recorded and transcribed, we started the process of analyzing the data. As mentioned above, we chose a theme analytical method. For us, this meant that we were looking for themes and repeating patterns in the interview answers. According to Rennstam and Wästfors (2015), the process of a

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theme analytical method involves three steps: sorting, reducing and argumentation.

This means that we sorted the material that we found relevant in the interviews. The relevant material was categorized in different themes, which made it easier to

distinguish different characteristics, differences and similarities among the interview answers of the respondents. This made it possible to discover connections between different answers but also to reduce the material. When coding the answers, we used memos to ease the process of categorizing the answers. When the process of

analyzing the empirical data was completed, the themes were used as argumentation to support our theoretical data in our conclusion. The themes which will be analyzed are: “Too many tourists make it too crowded for the locals”, “Lack of knowledge”,

“Different tourists have different behavior”, “Different and similar cultural backgrounds” and “Perceived economic benefits”.

2.6 Ethic

To make sure that we were keeping an ethical standard while interviewing our respondents we followed four ethical principles, which both Bryman (2011) and Ryen (2004) discuss. These principles should be considered while doing a research.

The four principles are as follows:

1. Information requirement: this means that the respondents are aware of what the research is about and the purpose of it, but also that they are aware of that their participation is voluntary (Bryman, 2011; Ryen, 2004).

2. Consent requirement: this refers to that the respondents can chose on what

conditions they participate in the study. They can, and are aware of the fact that they can, stop the interview whenever they want, without any negative consequences (Bryman, 2011; Ryen, 2004).

3. Confidentiality requirement: this requirement assures the respondents that their personal information will be handled carefully to ensure that no one unauthorized will have access to the information (Bryman, 2011; Ryen, 2004).

4. Utilization requirement: this refers to that the answers will only be used for this study and no other purpose (Bryman, 2011; Ryen, 2004).

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By using these guidelines to ensure an ethical standard, we have designed questions that contain the points above. Some examples of questions we asked are "Do you agree that we are recording this interview?", all of our respondents’ answered yes.

Further explanations of what this study is about gave the respondents an

understanding of the reason for the interviews, the question "Do you understand the purpose of this interview?" were asked. The respondents have also been informed that their participation can be cancelled if the respondent does not want to complete the interview. All our respondents answered yes to the question if they accept that names appear in the study. Finally, it was explained that the respondents' answers will only be used in the study and not for other purposes. Through the answers of our respondents, we have obtained a basis, which makes our interviews keep an ethical standard.

2.7 Critical Aspects

The choice of respondents could be criticized since they are chosen based on access, and know us beforehand, which could affect the objectiveness of their answers. If you are familiar with a person, and they might have some knowledge of your opinions of the subject, they could answer in a certain way just to please you. To avoid this issue, we chose to interview each other’s contacts, which meant that we did not know the person we interviewed beforehand.

Another aspect that could be criticized in relation to our respondents is the fact that they have different ages, live in different places and have different educations and jobs. These factors could result in that they have different views on tourism. The fact that they live in different places could affect their view in particular, since different cultures and regions can have had different issues with tourism historically, for example. However, we do not see this as an issue since the purpose of this study is not to measure the answers of the respondents, but rather to get personal opinions of how they experience tourism.

Validity and reliability are two aspects that always can be questioned when doing a research. Validity refers to if the empirical data is consequent with the reality and is

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truthful. Reliability is how well you have succeeded to measure the empirical data when it comes to accuracy and credibility (Smith, 2017). Since this study is based on experiences and is descriptive, it is positive that our respondents have different characteristics, which makes their answers individual, since it makes the empirical data valid. We consider the reliability to be positive, since we through coding will be able to measure the answers. The accuracy will be high as well, since the interviews will be audio-recorded, and all researchers will go through them.

Something that was difficult for us, that may have affected the validity is our access to the respondent. We have not been able to be at the destinations our respondents live at. This way, we only had access to them by phone, which means that it is easier for the respondents to not participate in the interviews, even when promised. We had a potential respondent in Barcelona, whom we wanted to interview, but who kept rescheduling the interview, and in the end cancelled. When this issue occurred, we chose to interview a new respondent from Brussels instead, since we did not have access to anyone else in Barcelona. Luckily, this worked out well. A similar issue occurred with another respondent, who kept rescheduling the interview because of lack of time. We solved this issue by doing the interview by audio-message, instead of over the phone. This made it possible for the respondent to answer the questions whenever it was convenient, but it was still possible to speak freely, and the

interview was still recorded. The fact that one interview was not done by phone, did not affect the study, and the respondent still gave long, detailed answers.

To keep the answers of the respondents as correct as possible, which is not only an issue of reliability, but also an ethical issue, we have audio-recorded the interviews.

To avoid a subjective interpretation of the answers, all researchers have listened to the recordings and read the written versions of them, to make sure that no

misinterpretations have occurred. By ensuring that the answers are objectively interpreted, the respondents get a fair and just treatment of their answers. The respondents have had the possibility to, and been aware of the fact that they could, change previous answers by the end of the interview.

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3 Literature Review

In this chapter, previous research about the topic of this study will be presented. The first part will discuss social carrying capacity, where the definition of carrying capacity and its history is included. The second part will cover tourist behavior, where its history, the social relation between host and guest and different types of tourists, will be discussed. Finally, the last part will focus on the host community, including locals, cultural aspects, religion and social and economic impacts of tourism.

3.1 Social carrying capacity

This chapter will discuss social carrying capacity and the meaning of the concept.

Carrying capacity will be defined and to get a better understanding of it, the history of carrying capacity will be discussed. This study focuses on social carrying

capacity, but to understand the concept of social carrying capacity, it is important to understand carrying capacity in general.

3.1.1 The definition of carrying capacity and its history

The concept of carrying capacity is often confused with the concept of tourism sustainability (Saarinen, 2006). Carrying capacity focuses on a local scale, while tourism sustainability tends to refer to a global scale. In carrying capacity, the focus is to protect a region from surpassing its capacity of for example social,

environmental or economic capacity (Zelenka & Kacetl, 2014). The main difference between the two concepts is that they work in different scales, and therefore should not be mixed up with each other. There is no specific definition of carrying capacity (Zelenka & Kacetl, 2014), however, many researchers define it as sustainability on a specific destination (Cooper, 2016; Mathieson & Wall, 1982; Zelenka & Kacetl, 2014). The concept is often divided into several categories, such as social, environmental, economic and physical carrying capacity. Each category plays a significant role in how to understand how tourism affects a destination (Cooper, 2016; Zelenka & Kacetl, 2014).

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The concept of carrying capacity was first used in tourism in the 1960’s, which was the start of mass-tourism. It was used as a measurement for calculating the maximum number of visitors a destination could handle, since they noticed that too many tourists on a specific destination could harm the local community (Pololikashvili, 2018). Since the 60’s, the definition of carrying capacity has changed and there has been many different definitions since, however, today the World Tourism

Organization defines it as the maximum number of visitors a tourism destination can have without damaging the social, physical or economic environment (Pololikashvili, 2018).

3.1.2 Social carrying capacity

Social carrying capacity is one of the categories of carrying capacity, which focuses on the social aspects of a destination. Just like carrying capacity, there is no general definition of social carrying capacity. However, a common definition is the local community’s attitude towards the tourism at a destination (Cooper, 2016; Saveriades, 2000). It can also refer to the maximum number of tourists a destination can handle, without the experience of visiting the destination decreasing. Exceeding the social carrying capacity of a destination can be the result of tourism developing too fast and unplanned at a destination, which can create social issues in the host community.

This was common in the 70’s in the Mediterranean region, as the region became a popular tourism destination and grew too fast. The rapid development of tourism in the region resulted in social issues in the region. However, the exceeding of social carrying capacity of a destination is not a permanent stage. A destination that

exceeds its social carrying capacity can revert to an accepting local community. This can happen in several ways, such as actions from the government or municipality, or the locals simply changing their attitudes towards tourism (Saveriades, 2000).

While different categories of carrying capacity can be measured quite easily, such as ecological and economic, social carrying capacity is difficult to measure, since it is hard to measure attitudes. When attempting to assess the social carrying capacity of a destination, it is important to include both the tolerance of tourism of the local

community and the quality of the experience of tourists (Saveriades, 2000).

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However, since this is a qualitative study and the focus is not to measure the social carrying capacity at the chosen destinations, but rather to get personal opinions from the locals, this study will only focus on the tolerance of tourism of the local

community.

Butler is a professor in tourism and is the creator of a model that defines different stages of a destination’s development connected to its carrying capacity. The model is called Butler’s curve or Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC). The TALC model shows how the number of tourists on a destination increases and how the tourism develops.

The increasing number of tourists will eventually decrease because the destination will hit its maximum number of carrying capacity. This means that tourist number cannot increase anymore because of negative impacts on the destination, due to environmental, physical or social factors. A social factor can, for example, be crowding, which means the destination cannot receive more than a specific number of tourists. The model is a hypothesis for a destination’s evolution. Butler (2006) noticed that a tourism destination changes when more tourist visits the destination.

The model can help researchers find which stage a destination is currently in.

Figure 1: Tourist Area Life Cycle (Butler, 1980).

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There are different stages in Butler’s curve. The first one is the involvement stage, which is the first stage. This stage refers to when a low number of tourists visit a destination and the locals get engaged with the tourists and, for example expand facilities. The development stage is when the destination is developing. The facilities increase and grow, and different tourist attractions develop. The third stage is the consolidation stage. This is when tourism organizations from outside of the destination connect with local organizations on the destination and the parties can come together and become an important part of the destination’s economy. Butler (2006) argues that during this stage the tourists separate from the local society, and that tourists do not interact with locals, only the ones who work with tourism. The fourth stage is the stagnation stage, which is the peak for the destination. In this stage, the organization will not develop further since it has reached its full potential.

When the stagnation stage is reached, the destination’s image will be well-known, but it will no longer be a trend to visit the destination. The decline stage is when the destination will not be able to compete with new, more modern destinations and attractions. There is one more stage, but according to Butler (2006), this stage is very rare for a destination to reach. This stage is called rejuvenation and will only happen if the destination manages to redo its image and start over, and once again increase its tourism demand (Butler, 2006).

The TALC model (Butler, 2006) is relevant to this study since the degree of the irritation of the locals on a destination tends to change similarly to the cycle of the destination (Butler, 1980). The stages of attitudes of the locals on a tourism destination are euphoria, apathy, irritation and antagonism. How high the level of irritation is and how fast it grows varies from destination to destination and depends on what type of tourists who visit the destination, which is cultural background, purpose of traveling etc. Unless the tourism on the destination is carefully controlled, it is likely that at some point, the attitude of the local community will be

predominantly negative, which means that the social carrying capacity of the destination is exceeded (Saveriades, 2000).

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3.2 Tourism behavior

The behavior of the tourist plays a significant role in this study. Even though the study mainly focuses on the locals’ perspective, the role of the tourist and its historical development is still important to get a deeper understanding of why the locals feel the way they do. This category will discuss how the tourism behavior have developed and changed historically. It will also discuss how the tourism behavior in the host community can affect the locals and the social carrying capacity. Finally, different types of tourist will be discussed, and how different types of tourists tend to have different kinds of behavior when traveling.

3.2.1 The historical development of tourism behavior

Just like tourism and travel patterns have changed through time, so has the tourist’s behavior while traveling. Since the trends of tourism have changed through time, different types of tourism have been popular at different times in history (Löfgren, 1999). A certain type of tourism tends to attract a certain type of tourists, and different types of tourists often behave in different ways.

In the end of the past century, the main purpose of traveling was usually simply to get away from the cold weather to enjoy the sun and the beach at a sunny destination.

At this time, package trips where transport, accommodation and food and beverages were included were very popular. This type of tourism, especially at this time, tend to have a low amount of guest-host relation, which decreases the risk of disturbing the social carrying capacity. During this time, tourists did not have very high demands and were quite easily pleased, and as long as their holiday included sun, sea and beaches, they were happy (Löfgren, 1999).

Around the turn millennium, the demand for theme trips increased, and cultural tourism in particular. The tourist now wanted more than simply laying on the beach on their holiday. They wanted to add a cultural value to the holiday by for example visiting museums, old monuments, architecture etc. (Bohlin & Elbe, 2011). This

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meant that the tourists now expanded their movement when visiting the destination.

Instead of staying on their resort or just going to the beach, they now started visiting local places, which meant more interaction with the locals.

This past decennium it has been popular to visit original, untouched destinations, rather than more mainstream ones (Kutschera, 2018; Revfine, n.d; Shabada, n.d). It is not really anything to brag about if you went on an all-inclusive trip to Mallorca anymore, since so many people have already done it. Instead, tourists want a more exotic destination, where you can experience local traditions and culture (Kutschera, 2018; Revfine, n.d; Shabada, n.d). As the environmental discussion has become more frequent lately, so has the demand of eco-friendly trips. From this demand, eco- tourism has developed, which is a type of tourism which is friendly ecologically, socially and economically (Bjork, 2000). The rise in eco-tourism is relevant for this study since eco-tourists do not have any negative social impacts on the host

community. Another quite recent trend is using social media to share your holiday experience (Shabada, n.d). As a result, many people share their eco-tourism

experiences, since it is a trend right now. However, often it turns out that the tourists who share their “eco-trips” on social media, does not care about the environment at all, which means that the tourist is in fact not an eco-tourist, but just wants to follow the trend. Because of this issue, the phrase ego-tourism has developed, which refers to a tourist who pretends to care about the environment, but actually value their ego more (MacCannell, 2002; Perkins & Brown, 2012). The demand to visit untouched places and local places, rather than typical tourism places means that there is a large amount of guest-host relation, which means that the social carrying capacity could be easily affected.

3.2.2 The social relation between host and guest

According to Smith, Sziva and Olt (2019), the way tourists behave when visiting a destination is important. If they behave in a way that disturbs the social carrying capacity of the host country, or upsets the locals, it could have devastating effects for the tourism development on the destination. Since the locals can have a rather big

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impact on the development of the tourism on a destination, it could backlash if the locals get a negative view of tourists and tourism (Deery et al., 2012). For example, Smith, Sziva and Olt (2019), it discovered that the locals in Budapest were resistant towards tourism in the city and its development. The reason to this was mainly due to the way the tourists behaved. The locals of Budapest complained about noise and partying because of the increased tourism in the city. Due to this behavior, the locals got a bad perception of the tourism in their city (Smith et al., 2019). An interruption of development of tourism on a destination could have negative effects on the economy, which the region might be dependent of. To avoid issues like this, it is important to have an understanding of the host-guest relation. The social relation between the host and guest at a destination can be determined by their differences and similarities (Levine, 1977; Reisinger & Turner, 1998), which could mean that if the tourist and the locals have similar cultures, for example, the clash of cultures is smaller, which could decrease the risk of affecting the social carrying capacity of the host community.

According to Sutton (1967), the social guest-host contact can be divided into three categories, depending on similarities and differences in their cultural background. In the first category, the host and the guest share the same cultural background. The second category refers to some differences in their cultural background. In the third category, the cultural difference between host and guest is large (Sutton, 1967). If the tourist and the local share a cultural background (category 1), their behavior is often similar, which means that many miscommunications can be avoided. If the tourist and the host have a very different cultural background (category 3) however, it is likely that they have different behaviors and the probability of miscommunications, which could lead to annoyance, frustration or anger from both parties (Sutton, 1967;

Triandis, 1977). This means that the risk of disturbing the social carrying capacity on a destination is higher if you are visiting a destination where the culture is very different from your own, since you might not behave in the way you are expected to.

If the tourists behave very differently than the locals, and maybe even in a way which could be considered disrespectful to the locals’ culture or religion for example,

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it is very likely that it will upset the local community, which could be considered exceeding the social carrying capacity. This means that the social carrying capacity of a destination is more threatened by tourists with a different cultural background, than tourists with a similar one. From this, one can conclude that domestic tourists, for example, have less risk of disturbing the social carrying capacity at a destination, than international tourists, since the domestic tourists probably have a very similar culture to the locals on the destination. However, in the end, the individual behavior of a tourist can be determined from more than cultural background. What type of tourism a tourist is interested in also affects the way they behave, which will be discussed in the next paragraph.

3.2.3 Types of tourists

It is hard to generalize tourism behavior since there are many different types of tourists, and they tend to behave in different ways when traveling. Senior tourists for example, tend to be more passive while traveling and often engage in tourism

experiences such as bus touring or cruises (Lehto et al., 2008; Nielsen, 2016). It is also common that senior tourists return to a destination they have visited before, rather than exploring new places. The fact that senior tourists often are repeat visitors at a destination (Nielsen, 2016; Ryan, 1995), is also important when it comes to their behaviour (Caldeira et al., 2018). According to Caldeira and Kastenholtz (2018), there is a significant difference in the behavior of first-time and repeat visitors at a destination. First-timers tend to visit iconic and historical attractions, which are usually popular and well-known. Repeat visitors, however, tend to visit attractions that are not as well-known, but they also often have more interaction with the host community, which could affect the social carrying capacity more (Caldeira et al., 2018).

According to Smith (2003), cultural tourists were in the past considered to not have significant impact on the host community, since it was assumed that this type of tourism only attracted well-educated tourists in small numbers. Hence, it was

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considered that the cultural tourists were not much of a threat for the host community. However, today there is a diversity of people interested in cultural tourism. Since the demand of cultural tourism has increased (Smith, 2003), the social carrying capacity of cultural attractions at destinations is challenged. Cultural tourists usually prefer fairly untouched places with a lot of traditional or religious value for example, and with a lot of interaction with the locals. Because of the large amount of host-guest relation, the risk of exceeding the social carrying capacity of the host destination is big (Smith, 2003).

According to Smith (2003), all-inclusive tourists are a type of tourism, which is often considered negative for the host destination. The reason is usually due to economic leakage, which refers to that big, international, all-inclusive resorts are often not locally owned. This results in little or no economic benefit for the host community.

However, all-inclusive tourists tend to stay on the resort, or nearby, which results in minimal interaction with the locals. The minimal host-guest relation can lead to less negative social effects for the host community (Smith, 2003).

Unlike all-inclusive tourism, eco-tourism is a form of tourism usually considered to be positive from several perspectives (Bjork, 2000). Even though the definition of eco-tourism varies, a common definition is that the eco-tourist should not have any negative impacts environmentally, economically or socially. From this description, it could be assumed that the eco-tourist would behave in a way which is not threatening for the host community. However, just like cultural tourists, eco-tourists tend to prefer visiting rather untouched places, which could affect the social preservation of the place (Bjork, 2000). There is also a type of tourist related to eco-tourists, which is called responsible tourist, which values the same aspects as the eco-tourist, but also cares about the cultural aspects of a host community (Mathew & Sreejesh, 2017).

As shown above, there is a diversity between tourists and their behavior, which can be a problem if you want to generalize tourism behavior. However, the behavior of all kinds of tourist affect the host society in some way, either positively or

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negatively. Naturally, there is more types of tourists than mentioned above. This is simply to show how different types of tourists can affect the host community in different ways.

3.3 Host communities

In this chapter, we will discuss what is happening at the destination when tourists visit and how the locals at a tourist destination are affected by tourists in various aspects. This chapter will also cover how the local population sees tourism and how cultures are adapted and strengthened through tourism, including how traditions are influenced. The locals are the cornerstone of the development of tourism (Easterling, 2004; Sharpley, 2014). Taking the local people's needs and concerns in

considerations is important in tourism development for host destinations (Ribeiro et al., 2017). It is important to be aware of that one can affect the culture and traditions of the host community on the destination when you are traveling. When traveling as a tourist, you bring your own culture with you, which will meet another culture at the destination (Smith, 2003). There are various aspects that will be affected at the destination, not only the environmental but also the social carrying capacity. Tourists travel for different reasons and with different behavior, and it affects the destination and the locals. Most behavior comes from where you come from and what kind of traditions and cultures you have.

3.3.1 Locals

When tourists arrive at a destination in another country, they are met by a different culture. The increase in tourism have resulted in that more people travel to new places, which means that interaction between different cultures have also increased.

As previously mentioned, tourists often behave in a certain way when traveling. The fact that tourists behave differently from what they do at home can cause problems when visiting a destination. Since tourism can be important for many destinations, it may be necessary for the locals to accept the behavior of tourists (Deery et al., 2012).

Many destinations build up their city after the demands of tourists, and so it is also important that the local people's attitude towards tourists is good. Andereck and Vogt (2000) and Andriotis (2005) argue that the local people's attitude is crucial to how a

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community engages in tourism. In this way, it is important that everyone is included in the development process of the tourism, in that way it benefits both parties.

Palmer, Koenig-Lewis and Medi Jones (2013) believes that there is a positive relationship between locals and tourists if the attitude towards each other is good. It has also led to a better view of tourism in general.

It is not only the attitude towards each other that is important. The perception of how tourism impacts the social, economic and environmental issues is also an aspect that local people can care about. If it is perceived that the three aspects are positively affected, it contributes to the local population having a positive attitude towards tourism. However, it can be difficult to measure (Sharpley, 2014).

Even though tourism affects the local residents, it has a positive effect when it comes to job opportunities. As more tourism organizations open at a destination, work opportunities also increase. What may be a negative effect of this is that there may be large, international companies that do not hire people from the host country (Hohl &

Tisdell, 1995). This can have negative impacts on the local community, as it decreases the job opportunities for the locals. However, a positive impact is that it creates the opportunity to open tourist attractions if the destination gets more visitors (Brau et al., 2007). This can result in the locals getting a negative perspective of tourism. In the next chapter, we will discuss how important the connection between tourists and local population is.

3.3.2 Cultural aspects

It is not only the attitude of the locals towards the tourists in general that is important. Also, how tourists' attitude towards the local people's culture is. As mentioned earlier, some cities are built specifically for tourism and it can also make cities choose to enhance their cultural parts that characterize them (Smith, 2003).

Previously studies show that the construction of historical and cultural attractions have been invested in by the public sector. Initially, it was only to maintain their culture, but have recently shown the benefits of tourism (Lawrence, 2008), since people travel more and more to experience the history and culture of other

destinations. As mentioned, responsible tourism is a type of tourism that takes into consideration economic, ecological, social and cultural aspects. This means that the

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person traveling has the intention not to affect any of the aspects above. This type of tourism has a significant influence on the quality of the local population (Ap, 1992;

Jurowski & Gursoy, 2004; Kim, 2002). Leslie (2012) defines this as a type of tourist who has a responsible behavior, and that the tourist acts responsible at the destination and is aware of her own actions. They respect the locals and are involved in

environmental and ethical aspects throughout their stay. However, it can be difficult to measure how much they affect the destination, as it can indirectly do so when they have still traveled to the site, which often affects the environment. However, this type of tourist tries to impact the economic, ecological and the social and cultural aspects as little as possible (Leslie, 2012).

Maintaining and developing the culture of the destination also have positive effects on the local population as the locals show appreciation of cultural resources

(Besculides et al., 2002) and emotional solidarity (Woosnam, 2011). This can lead to a stronger culture and to increased tourism as people have a great interest in cultural tourism (Smith, 2003). The European Commission (2002) has identified ten different factors included in cultural tourism. They are cultural heritage, distinctiveness/unique sales position, season, attractions of attraction, branding and networking, partnership, accessibility and sustainability, access (weather and distance) and strategic planning.

This means that these principles must be used and achieved in order to have cultural tourism. It benefits a destination not only because of increased tourism, but also because it preserves its cultural heritage.

Cultural tourism can have both negative and positive effects on the destination. A positive effect of cultural tourism is the relationship between the host destination and the tourist. It has positive effects such as cultural revival, mutual learning and

multiculturalism. In that way, the globalization has made it easier to connect with other cultures, and in that way made it stronger (Stronza & Gordillo, 2008). One negative aspect of cultural tourism is staged tourism. This means that something is designed to satisfy the needs or expectations of the tourists (Bruner, 1991). To clarify what staged tourism is, we will give an exaggerated example of how staged tourism can look. For example, it may be that tourists expect to see baguettes everywhere when they visit France, because there is a cultural picture of it. However, in the real case, it is not like that. France accepts this image because they are aware of that tourists expect it when visiting France. This can be negative if the destination builds

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attractions, which can damage their culture and traditions, and that it becomes something exaggerated and inauthentic. What is actually authentic and genuine disappear and the destinations have to work to maintain an imaginary picture, in order to earn as much money as possible of tourism (MacCannell, 1976). This is the way staged tourism works. However, staged tourism can have positive effects since it attracts many tourists and that they can relate to a certain type of culture or country (MacCannell, 1976). In order not to continue to destroy the culture and traditions of a host community, it is necessary that the locals are integrated with the tourism

industry, and that there is ownership of the culture from locals, so that tourism cannot damage the cultural and traditional resources (Sindiga, 1996; Smith, 1989;

Wilson, 1997). Where there is a connection between the tourist and the host, tourism can become stronger without contributing to too much destruction to the various aspects. Locals' perception and attitude are also a big part of how they choose to highlight their destination (Tan et al., 2013).

3.3.3 Religion

There is a lack of research on how religion at a destination is affected and effects the local community. Religion can be considered to be a part of a culture, and while discussing cultures proves to be a major phenomenon when it comes to tourism, religion does not seem to be a part of that discussion. The reason to this could be that religion could be a more sensitive topic to discuss, than culture in general; however, there is not enough research to confirm this. Religion can be a type of tourism, which means that the purpose of the trip is to perform or participate in some kind of

religious experience. Some examples are pilgrimage trips or visits to historical sites (Cohen & Cohen, 2012; Vukonic, 1998). What is difficult to discuss is how religious travels affect the local community, both their religion and culture. As mentioned before, there is a big gap where there is no previous research. In a study by Fourie, Rosselló and Santana-Gallego (2015), religion is discussed from a tourism

perspective. They discuss religious journeys such as pilgrimages and the economic part connected to religious trips. Reasons for religious travels are something that is common in many religious articles, however, this is not relevant to this study, but they do mention culture as a factor of traveling. In their conclusion they discuss that evidence shows that tourists tend to travel to destinations that include cultural and historical similarities to their own countries. They suggest that there is a link between

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culture and religion, and that they can be placed in the same category (Fourie et al., 2015).

Earlier in this chapter, the interaction between culture and the locals has been raised, where it clearly shows how cultures are affected by the globalization as people travel more (UNWTO, n.da). To understand how tourism, affect the religion of the host community, and why religion is not as clear as a phenomenon for the influence of societies, you would have to do a separate study.

3.3.4 Social and economic impacts of tourism

As mentioned, different tourists behave in different ways depending on what type of tourism they engage in. According to Armenski, Dragičević, Pejović, Lukić and Djurdjev (2011), the locals tend to have different view of tourism, depending on what type of tourism that is the main one at a destination. To give an example of how different types of tourism can result in different opinions of tourism among the locals, Armenski, Dragičević, Pejović, Lukić, Djurdjev (2011) compares two tourism cities in Serbia. In Belgrade, business tourism is very popular, while festival tourism is a popular type of tourism in Novi Sad. The locals in Belgrade have a rather

positive view of tourism since business tourists tend to have a more controlled behavior, also their main aim with the trip is not to visit tourist attractions or integrate with the locals, but to work. In Novi Sad however, the locals are not as positive towards tourism, since festival tourists tend to have a less controlled behavior, which could be disturbing for the locals (Armenski et al., 2011).

Another contributing factor to a negative view of tourism among the locals is lack of information of the tourism development on the destination. If the information of tourism development does not reach the locals, a negative view of tourism can occur.

This can lead to conflicts between the locals and the tourism industry, which can result in exceeding the social carrying capacity of the destination (Ahadian, 2013;

Moscardo et al., 2013). To avoid this, it is important that the locals feel like they have the possibility to impact the tourism development. It is important that both parties contribute to an open dialog so that both sides can be satisfied. This could result in more tourists wanting to visit the destination, which is a good outcome for

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all parties involved (Ahadian, 2013). Another aspect that also can affect the social carrying capacity of the destination is the economic impacts (Navarro et al., 2013).

According to Navarro, Damian and Fernández-Morales (2013), the economic effects of tourism at a destination can affect the social carrying capacity. Increased tourism often results in increased economy at a destination (Gonzalez et al., 2018; Saarinen, 2006; Saveriades, 2000). If a destination benefits economically from tourism, the locals tend to have a positive view of tourism, which means that the social carrying capacity is not exceeded (Navarro et al., 2013).

Locals who work with tourism and therefore get their economical income from tourism, tend to have a more positive view of tourists and tourism in general (Andereck, 2005). Tourism can affect the locals positively in several ways, such as job opportunities and economic diversity. For the local community in general, tourism tend to have positive effects. With an increased tourist flow, the income of the local population is also increasing. This can lead to more people earning more money and a better standard of living will occur (Lin, 2017). However, tourism can also have negative economic effects on the local community, such as increased prices (Teng, 2019). If tourists are willing to pay a lot for commodities, houses etc. the prices will increase, which might result in that the locals cannot afford to live there any longer, this can lead to a hostile situation which can result in exceeding the social carrying capacity of the destination (González-Pérez, 2019).

4 Analysis of Empirical and Theoretical Data

This chapter will discuss and compare the empirical data with the previously studied literature. When analyzing the answers to the questions in the interviews, we found several themes. They will be analyzed and compared to each other in order to be able to answer our research question. The themes are as follows: “Too many tourists make it too crowded for the locals”, “Lack of knowledge”, “Different tourists have different behavior”, “Different and similar cultural backgrounds” and “Perceived economic benefits”.

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4.1 Too many tourists make it too crowded for the locals

This chapter will focus on the tolerance of tourism from the locals’ perspective, but also on how carrying capacity is perceived. To understand how the respondents experience the current carrying capacity at their destinations, and their perception of how their destination controls it, we asked the following question: “How do you think that your city controls the number of tourists?” To this question, the answers from the respondents vary. Some said they do believe their city controls the number of tourists, some said they did not think their city controls it, and some simply did not know. Pauliina Vouri, a resident in Copenhagen, answered “For sure they do. I think Visit Denmark works with that and the carrying capacity at the moment is quite good. It is enough tourists, but not too many.” She believes that it is important to control the number of tourists to be able to manage the tourism development properly. Her opinion is consistent with Saveriades’ (2000) thoughts about the importance of controlling tourism. If a destination does not control the number of tourists carefully, it will likely have negative impacts on the local community at some point, which will result in the destination exceeding its social carrying capacity (Saveriades, 2000). Uschi Nijhuis from Amsterdam also says that her city controls the number of tourists and that they have very strict rules. For example, hotels have to have a special license to open, to avoid hotels opening everywhere, she says.

Bianca Baikie is one of the respondents who did not believe that her city controls the number of tourists. Although, she believes that London, where she lives, adapts to the number of tourists. For example, she said that when London hosted the

Olympics, they made different adjustments to deal with the high number of visitors, to avoid negative effects for the locals. Amanda Derksen from Stockholm mentions that the subway adapts to tourists during high season by announcing the various subway stations in English. This is to help the tourist and make it easier for them to get around the city.

Crowding, both in traffic and in general, is a common problem at tourist destinations (Andereck, 2005). All respondents expressed their concern about tourists moving

References

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