The Impact of Place Attachment of Historical Neighborhood Residents On the Tourism Support

Abstract

This article studies the relationship between the place attachment of historical neighborhood residents, the effects of tourism, and the support for tourism. The study was conducted in ten historical neighborhoods in Central Amasya, which are the best examples of Turkish civil architecture of small squares, Islamic-Ottoman social complexes, and mosques. Total sample number for 3336 houses was determined as 345. The questionnaires were applied between October and December 2017 on weekdays and weekends alike with simple random sampling method. A total of 460 houses agreed to answer the questionnaire. Principal components analysis was applied to determine the construct validity of place attachment and tourism effects scales. In order to discover the relationship between the place attachment scale of the participants and perceived effects of tourism & the support for tourism scales, Spearman's correlation test is applied as non-parametric test method. According to the study results, it was determined that place-based sense of belonging and social attachment had an influence on the residents' perception of and approach towards tourism. It is seen that neighborhood residents were in agreement that tourism would have positive effects on the neighborhood and that they did not develop any concerns about any negative effects of tourism. Similarly, it is understood that the more place attachment neighborhood residents had, the more supportive they were of any touristic endeavors. This indicates that any negative developments that may arise with functional changes that comes with touristic endeavors might cause a negative impact on their approach to and support of tourism.