The expectations and perceptions of local people regarding tourism impacts: An investigation upon Edi̇rne province

All the improving policies aiming to develop tourism sector might be unsuccessful and ineffective when the local poeple's perceptions and expectations of any regions where tourism is the one of the main industries, do not support the investments, tourism policies and programs. Therefore how local people perceive the effects of tourism and on which level they have the expectations is crucial for the region. Within this context, the main purpose of this research is to measure the perceptions and expectations of local people who resides in Edirne for tourism. It is also investigated whether the perceptions and expectations for tourism of that people differentiate according their demographical characteristics. The questionnaire tecnique has been used as data gathering method. The obtained data has been analyzed with SPSS program. According to the results gathered from the research conducted on 750 people who resides in Edirne, it has been established that the expectations of people for tourism is higher than their perceptions. Besides some differencies among their perceptions and expectations of local people have been identified according their age, income and education levels.