Tourism has impacts on smaller destinations too : A questionnaire study to determine any tourism effects on smaller destinations and its residents.

Sammanfattning: Tourism is something that today is very common for most parts of the world. Tourism effects is a phenomenon that focuses on the effects of tourism which can affect destinations and residents in different ways. The most common are social, cultural, environmental and economic impacts. The purpose of this bachelor thesis has been to explore if there are any tourism effects and if so, what are they and in what ways can they affect a small rural area as a destination and the effect on the residents. For this purpose we have used an area called Glasriket in Sweden as an example. This study has used both qualitative and quantitative data with a deductive approach. After conducting our research, we then composed a questionnaire. The questionnaire was shared on our personal Facebook pages and also sent out through email to businesses, organizations and municipalities in Glasriket. In total, the empirical data was collected from 74 respondents. The results of the study showed that tourism is often perceived as positive. The positive effects of tourism outweigh the negative. It is clear that tourism has impacts on destinations in rural areas and not only on major cities or coastal areas. One conclusion is that yes, there are effects caused by tourism in Glasriket. There are several environmental, social, cultural and economic impacts in this area. It can also be concluded that tourism affects people and destinations in different ways and the ways the effects are perceived by residents might vary depending on factors such as cultural background, economic status and personal opinions.