لخّصلي

Residents' support for and willingness to sustain tourism development activities is conditional upon how they perceive such developments impacting the communities where they reside (Andereck, Valentine, Knopf & Vogt, 2005; Nicholas, Thapa, & Ko, 2009). Consequently, most resident perception research assumes a linear association between perceptions of residents and their support towards development of tourism (Choi & Sirakaya, 2006; Gursoy, Jurowski, & Uysal, 2002; Jaafar, Noor, & Rasoolimanesh, 2015; Ko & Stewart, 2002; Nicholas et al., 2009).In the event of residents having a positive perceptions of tourism, they will be encouraged to support such developments and to look for opportunities to benefit by offering tourism-related services and products; the perception of negative impacts, however, has the opposite effect of discouraging residents from supporting such developments (Sharpley, 2014).

Residents’ support for and willingness to sustain tourism development activities is conditional
upon how they perceive such developments impacting the communities where they reside
(Andereck, Valentine, Knopf & Vogt, 2005; Nicholas, Thapa, & Ko, 2009). Early research on
perceptions of residents towards development of tourism suggest the impacts of tourism
development are perceived both positively and negatively (Rasoolimanesh, Roldan, Jaafar &
Ramayah, 2017). In the event of residents having a positive perceptions of tourism, they will be encouraged to support such developments and to look for opportunities to benefit by offering
tourism-related services and products; the perception of negative impacts, however, has the
opposite effect of discouraging residents from supporting such developments (Sharpley, 2014).
Consequently, most resident perception research assumes a linear association between
perceptions of residents and their support towards development of tourism (Choi & Sirakaya,
2006; Gursoy, Jurowski, & Uysal, 2002; Jaafar, Noor, & Rasoolimanesh, 2015; Ko & Stewart,
2002; Nicholas et al., 2009). However, studies from the field of tourism pertaining to residents’
perceptions suggest the presence of more complex and non-linear relationships between
constructs (Allen, Long, Perdue, & Kieselbach, 1988; Bowen & Chen, 2001). These non-linear
relationships suggest that how residents behave when they are supportive for tourism
development in their communities might be more heterogeneous than previously thought. The
assumption of linear relationships between constructs in a model can lead to the results of a
study being misunderstood. Therefore, not only is the actual relationship between variables
non-linear; but if the relationship is erroneously assumed to be linear then not only will the true
relationship will be underestimated, but the effects of this relationship might register as weak
or non-significant.