Impact of guest house tourism on local communities of Addu city / Shafna Ahmed Didi

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study was to find out how the local community perceives the cultural, social, environmental and economical impacts that would have in establishing community based tourism in Addu city.
It was hypothesized that there would not be any perceptual difference among the two groups (Site A- Scoop Guest house site, Site B- northern part of Hithadhoo, where there are no guest houses) about the socio cultural, environmental, economical impact of guesthouse tourism. It was also perceived that the socio cultural and environmental impact does not affect the economic impact perceived among the two groups. To understand this a questionnaire was formed and 100 (50 from each site) respondents from both site A and Site B was randomly selected.
A T-test was done using SPSS software to find the perceived impacts that guest house tourism will have on the local communities of Addu City. The study showed that there is no significant perceptual difference in the socio cultural impacts and the environmental impact of the guest house tourism. However the findings showed there is insignificant difference in perceptual economical impact among the respondents in the two sites, Site One & Site Two. The results also showed a positive correlation between the economical impacts of the guest house tourism when the socio cultural impacts were taken together with the environmental impacts.
The information and data collected can be used to convince other potential investors and financing authorities about the behavior, attitude, participation, contribution and involvement of the local communities in Addu City, when it comes to developmental activities and programs.