Perceived impacts of tourism by shop owners: The case of Porto, Portugal

Abstract

This paper proposes to disclose the perceived impacts of Tourism for a specific group of stakeholders, namely the owners of shops located in the historical center of Porto, in Portugal, a city which witnessed a significant increase in Tourism in recent years. Shop owners’ perceptions about tourism have been practically ignored by the existent literature, despite the significant impacts felt by them. A questionnaire is applied to shop owners and a statistical analysis is performed, presenting and discussing the obtained results. The results evidence that shop owners tend to support the benefits of Tourism, even though they feel some reserves regarding its potentially negative impacts. Some policy directions and possibilities for further research are evidenced through this analysis.