IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v13y2023i7p171-d1199286.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Society’s Heterogeneity Regarding Attitudes towards Tourism: A Cluster Analysis of the Ibiza Residents

Author

Listed:
  • José Ramón-Cardona

    (Ibiza Island Council University College of Tourism, University of the Balearic Islands, 07800 Ibiza, Spain)

  • María Dolores Sánchez-Fernández

    (Department of Business, University of A Coruña, 15071 A Coruña, Spain)

Abstract

The residents’ attitudes towards tourism are heterogeneous, although most studies do not focus their analysis on analyzing this variability. The segmentation of residents based on their attitudes has sought to determine the existing profiles within the local society of tourist destinations and their quantitative importance. The aim of this article is to carry out a segmentation of Ibiza residents according to their attitudes towards tourism. In this case, it seeks to analyze the existing heterogeneity in the local society of a mature and highly mediated tourist destination. Ibiza is a Spanish island in the Western Mediterranean with a surface area of 572 km and 150,000 inhabitants. It receives three million tourists a year, making it one of the most internationally known tourist destinations. The methodology used is a descending hierarchical cluster analysis (Howard-Harris algorithm) on a sample of 418 residents selected by a random procedure. The analysis has made it possible to identify five groups with opinions ranging from the most favorable towards tourism (enthusiastic supporters) to the most adverse (critics), with several intermediate groups (interested supporters, supporters with nuanced opinions, and neutrals). The most numerous groups are the supporters with nuanced opinions (23.0%), called by other authors “realists” for being aware of both the positive and negative impacts, and the critics (23.4%) concerned about the negative impacts. The minority group is the neutrals (13.6%). These proportions are plausible given the fact that it is a mature and highly crowded destination. This heterogeneity of attitudes should remind us that, in societies, there are always very different personal situations that will generate very different attitudes, and it is essential to know this social heterogeneity in order to manage the tourist destination correctly.

Suggested Citation

  • José Ramón-Cardona & María Dolores Sánchez-Fernández, 2023. "The Society’s Heterogeneity Regarding Attitudes towards Tourism: A Cluster Analysis of the Ibiza Residents," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-19, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:13:y:2023:i:7:p:171-:d:1199286
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/7/171/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/13/7/171/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Birame Sarr & Matías Manuel González-Hernández & Jose Boza-Chirino & Javier de León, 2020. "Understanding Communities’ Disaffection to Participate in Tourism in Protected Areas: A Social Representational Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-22, May.
    2. Laurentina Vareiro & Paula Remoaldo & José Cadima Ribeiro, 2013. "Residents' perceptions of tourism impacts in Guimarães (Portugal): a cluster analysis," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(6), pages 535-551.
    3. Jakson Renner Rodrigues Soares & Paula Remoaldo & André Riani Costa Perinotto & Larissa Paola Macedo Castro Gabriel & María Elvira Lezcano-González & María-Dolores Sánchez-Fernández, 2022. "Residents’ Perceptions Regarding the Implementation of a Tourist Tax at a UNESCO World Heritage Site: A Cluster Analysis of Santiago de Compostela (Spain)," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-18, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christina-Ioanna Papadopoulou & Fotios Chatzitheodoridis & Efstratios Loizou & Piotr Jurga, 2024. "Operational taxonomy of farmers' towards circular bioeconomy in regional level," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 1-27, June.
    2. Eunice Lopes & Noelia Araújo-Vila & André Riani Costa Perinotto & Lucília Cardoso, 2022. "Tourism and Land Planning in Natural Spaces: Bibliometric Approach to the Structure of Scientific Concepts," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, October.
    3. Mousa Pazhuhan (Panahandeh Khah) & Nabi Moradpour & Bahar Beishami & Rando Värnik & Yenny Katherine Parra-Acosta & Rytis Skominas & Maryam Pour & Hossein Azadi, 2023. "Do Inhabitants’ Perceptions Support Tourism Sustainability? The Case of Khorramabad in Iran," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-16, July.
    4. Xiaoping Gu & Carter A. Hunt & Michael L. Lengieza & Lijun Niu & Huiwen Wu & Yue Wang & Xiang Jia, 2020. "Evaluating Residents’ Perceptions of Nature-Based Tourism with a Factor-Cluster Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19, December.
    5. Alastair M. Morrison, 2022. "Editorial: Land Issues and Their Impact on Tourism Development," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-6, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:13:y:2023:i:7:p:171-:d:1199286. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.