ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to identify the relationship between the community leaders’ perceptions toward tourism impacts and their effort in building the capacity for tourism development in local communities of Shiraz, Iran. The chapter is based on the study carried out among 175 communities’ leader. The analysis of data uses Pearson correlation to determine the relationship between variables involved. The findings reveal that two impacts (economic and environmental) have the most significant relationship with the level of community capacity building. The findings of the study imply that those leaders who perceived the tourism activities could bring economic benefits would have the higher tendency to be actively involved in building the capacity of their communities in relation to the development of tourism, whereas those who perceived tourism could bring negative impact to the environment, would put less effort in the capacity building.In many countries, tourism is a fast growing industry and a valuable sector. Tourism contributes significantly to the countries’ economy. Moreover, tourism plays an increasingly important role in the development of communities. The benefits of tourism include both tangible (e.g., job creation, state and local tax revenue, etc.) and less tangible (e.g., social structure, quality-of-life, etc.). In addition, tourism can, and often does, result in less desirable effects on the economic, social, and environmental fabrics of communities. These benefits and costs provide ample opportunity for creative public policy debate. In other words, tourism affects the economy and lives of communities. There are real and perceived fears that are sometimes attributed to tourism. These impacts of tourism on communities could influence the communities’ effort to develop the industry. In relation to this, the main focus of this chapter is to identify the relationship between communities’ perception towards the impacts of tourism and their effort to build their community capacity in relation to tourism development.
