Perceived Effects Of The Cruising Tourism Among Residents Of Dubrovnik

In addition to its positive effects, cruising tourism can also have longterm negative impacts on the environment and life of local population. This paper analyzes how the development of cruising tourism in Dubrovnik and some of its effects are perceived by its residents. Using the questionnaire Tourism Impact Scale (TIS) on the sample of 122 residents during the summer of 2015, the correlation between the particular aspects/perceived effects of cruising tourism and some characteristics of the residents was examined (age, education level, work experience, family members' number, length of stay in Dubrovnik, the distance of the flat/house from the areas visited by the tourists from cruisers and direct experience with crusing tourism), as well as gender differences in latent dimensions of cruising tourism. Good metric characteristics (reliability and construct validity) of Tourism Impact Scale (TIS) were obtained, showing the relative compatibility with the original scales in the questionnaire TIS. There were no statistically significant gender differences in the perceived aspects of the cruiser tourism. There was a small number of statistically significant correlations between certain aspects/perceived effects of the cruising tourism with some socio-demographic and other variables in the research. For female participants, these correlations are mainly low and very low. The paper highlights the implications of perceptions and attitudes of local inhabitants on the development of tourism and emphasizes the importance of further research.