Community-based collaborative tourism planning in islands: A cluster analysis in the context of Costa Smeralda

This study analyses residents' perceptions and attitudes towards tourism development and community integration in tourism planning in an island tourism destination whose economy is widely influenced by the presence of big external investors. Findings reveal that residents believe that tourism planning should be more sensitive to residents and tradition, and be able to guarantee a higher level of heritage proximity in order to achieve a more indigenous/endogenous-oriented development. Exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analysis were conducted. Four clusters were identified (‘enthusiastics’, ‘moderate supporters’, ‘critics’, and ‘indifferents’), with significant differences in terms of employment reliance on tourism, length of residence, contact with tourists in everyday life, and level of education. Conversely, they did not differ based on gender, age, employment status, or geographical proximity to the tourist area, thus providing some contradictory insights when compared with previous studies. From a theoretical point of view, the findings seem to suggest that studies devoted to the investigation of residents’ view and attitude toward tourism should concentrate more on the personal values of respondents and less on their socio-demographic characteristics, which often render the findings of cluster analysis very site-specific and hard to generalise. Managerial implications are discussed, and suggestions for further research are provided.