Examining the Relationship between Residents’ Level of Happiness and Supportiveness to Tourism Events: Winchester (UK) as a Case Study

Abstract

Existing literature has explored the impacts of tourism events on destinations and on their residents as a one-way strategy. However, the direction of those impacts may have a reversal in terms of residents’ supportiveness and level of happiness. Happiness and tourism are very topical at the moment and are still under-researched. Based on this notion, the main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between residents’ level of happiness and their supportiveness/ non-supportiveness for tourism events. Primary data was collected using questionnaire and SPSS was utilised to run few descriptive analyses. The study reveals a different outcome; it is resilience of local residents that enable tourism events to grow and sustain the industry. The findings provide valuable insight on the relationship between residents’ causes of satisfaction/dissatisfaction with tourism events and the impacts on their level of happiness. The information is helpful for Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) and event organisers for development of events that may be profitably marketed along with tourism. Happiness may therefore be used as a metric by DMOs to assess tourism performance.

Keywords

• resident’s happiness
• tourism events
• relationship
• supportiveness
• winchester