Relationship between Local Residents’ Perceptions of Tourism and Support Attitudes in Post-Communist Countries: Case of Turkestan (Kazakhstan)

Abstract

The impacts of tourism and reactions of local residents toward tourism are examined frequently. However, the lights have been turned to mainly developed world and destinations. Post-communist and particularly Central Asian countries have almost never been examined. Through multivariate analysis on data compiled from 250 individuals, this study explores the perceptions of Turkestan (Kazakhstan) residents about economic, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts of tourism and their support attitudes toward tourism development. Findings underline that perceptions of social and environmental impacts were not clear and support to tourism development is basically related to economic issues, indicating that if the locals are economically active in the tourism sector, they would support more. The study has importance since it investigates a post-communist, new emerging, and non-examined destination having different political history from the mainstream tourism destinations.