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Purpose -The main purpose of this paper is to find out the residents' perceptions and attitudes as well as what factors influence their support when cultural tourism development is concerned. City of Zagreb is chosen as research area as one of the most attractive continental destinations in Croatia that is hosting more and more visitors every year, so it was found necessary to find out the residents' perspective regarding this trend, particularly toward cultural tourism that has a great innovation potential. Considering the fact that cultural tourists appreciate the aspects of culture and experiences that are innovative and supported by the local population, the aim of this research is to find out the residents point of view where is tested if residents' perception of tourism impacts affect their attitude toward cultural tourism development. Methodology -In order to obtain the residents' attitudes and opinions, an on-site-survey was carried out. The questionnaire consists of three parts collecting the residents' attitudes towards different tourism impacts, their involvement in the tourism development, as well as their sociodemographic characteristics. Data analysis include descriptive statistics, reliability test as well as regression analyses. Findings -Study reveal the residents' opinions regarding impacts that tourism generates when City of Zagreb is concerned. Moreover, the results provide the information regarding the differences in the residents' support towards cultural tourism development considering their sociodemographic characteristic and their perceptions towards the tourism impacts. Contribution -The main contribution of this paper lies in the connection between residents' sociodemographic characteristics, perception of tourism impacts and support of cultural tourism development.

PurposeMore research is needed to consider residents’ perceptions prior to hosting large-scale events. This paper contributes new insight on residents’ perceptions of placemaking analysed by considering awareness, enthusiasm and participation prior to hosting a large-scale event. Placemaking is becoming increasingly important and this insight can help planners understand how locals perceive change and event planning preparations.Design/methodology/approach454 residents of Rijeka, Croatia completed a survey (seven-point Likert scale) of 17 placemaking principles, asked in three ways: (1) how you feel; (2) how you believe people near you feel and (3) if you feel that planning/preparing for ECoC 2020 has made a difference. The data analysis considers socio-demographics and the significance of awareness, enthusiasm and participation as factors affecting residents’ perceptions of placemaking.FindingsThe study found respondents originally from Rijeka expressed statistically significant higher level of agreement. Where statistically significant differences exist, female respondents expressed statistically significant higher levels of agreement. For six statements, the distribution of results was not similar for all age groups. Awareness and enthusiasm seems to influence placemaking principles to a greater extent than participation in this study, but all have proven to have statistically significant positive impacts on the placemaking principles assessed.Practical implicationsPlanners need to focus on effective promotional activities aimed at awareness and enhance enthusiasm to help increase perceptions of placemaking and increase local quality of life.Originality/valueexplores perceptions of “self” and “how others feel” by assessing principles of placemaking associated with the case of Rijeka. This allows researchers to explore understandings of how people perceive the attitudes of their fellow residents.

Purpose There is a need to rethink destination competitiveness research, which tends to overlook local impacts of events and new developments. Conducting pre-event research challenges researchers to move beyond analyzing competitiveness as an end (concerning strategy, tangible outcomes, economic deliverables and value for visitors) to assessing competitiveness as a beginning (through perceptions of place management and local impacts). Design/methodology/approach Survey research with local residents explores competitiveness pertinent to perceptions of place management and local impacts. Participation, enthusiasm and information availability are independent variables to assess whether statistically significant differences exist among residents’ perceptions. In total, 454 surveys were collected; the analysis involved exploratory factor analysis and t-test. Findings Factor analysis revealed two factors for place management (organizational competencies; managing awareness) and local impacts (awareness of social benefits; local interest and support). Enthusiasm and information availability have stronger influences on residents’ perceptions than participation in pre-event activities. Practical implications More emphasis needs put on ensuring information availability promotes enthusiasm, to help encourage participation. These three variables are a necessary basis for exploring residents’ pre-event perceptions – a key starting point to guide decision-making through later stages of an event life-cycle. Originality/value Events and competitiveness studies focusing specifically on information availability and enthusiasm of residents is little-explored. By exploring these variables and extending insight on participation, this paper contributes to the literature by assessing pre-event resident perceptions of place management and local impacts (with data collected as event developments were being realized).

Rapid tourism development accompanied by exponential increase in the number of tourists and visitors in destinations can disrupt the life of destination residents and negatively affect their support for (future) tourism development. On the other hand, residents economically dependent on tourism might have different attitudes toward tourism in comparison to those who are not economically involved in tourism. Several studies have found that economic dependence on tourism induces more positive perceptions of tourism impacts and higher degree of support than non-dependence. Another potential valuable predictor of tourism support could be residents’ subjective well-being, enhancing our understanding quality of life under the influence of tourism. The purpose of this study is to better understand local residents’ support for tourism development by exploring their well-being, involvement in tourism activities and perceived overall value of tourism development. In order to gain a specific perspective of island tourism destination, a sample of residents living on a small Adriatic island Vir (Croatia) was chosen. Vir is high seasonal and mature destination with annual number of visitors around 30 times bigger than the number of permanent residents. It was found that those residents who are directly or indirectly economically benefiting from tourism have significantly higher scores in personal and national well-being domains and also exhibit higher support towards future tourism development, than those who don’t experience economic benefits from tourism. Regression analysis of an island well-being perception index, revealed that tourism generates more benefits than costs and economical involvement in tourism positively affect residents’ tourism development support. On the other hand, demographic predictors (age, gender, education, income) and personal well-being index are not associated with tourism development support. The results provide important insights for researchers and practitioners on understanding residents’ perceptions of tourism in mature destinations and how those perceptions can be related both to subjective well-being and the level of involvement in tourism activities.