Sociocultural determinants of creative tourism

A residents' perspectives

Abstract

Tourism impacts are a widely studied topic and these can be classified as economic, sociocultural, and environmental. Considering that the resident is the most sensitive stakeholder to the impacts, these subjects are usually associated with research. Cultural events also end up generating impacts and understanding how residents perceive the sociocultural impacts is essential to the success of this type of event. Thus, this study aims to analyse the sociocultural determinants of creative tourism based on the perspective of residents living in a small village called Amares (Portugal), in the north of Portugal, very close to Braga. Consequently, 202 questionnaires were applied, face-to-face and by Internet using Google Forms, for residents of Amares between March and July 2020. An Exploratory Factor analysis with varimax with the Kaiser normalisation rotation method was applied. Three determinants were extracted. The first determinant is related to the costs of the sociocultural impacts. The second determinant indicates the benefits related to the cultural aspects. Finally, the third indicates the benefits related to investments and infrastructure improvement. Concluding, understanding the sociocultural dimensions of a creative event, from the perspective of the residents allows for effective planning of the event's activities. Despite some limitations, namely the pandemic period that affected the application of the questionnaires, the study carried out in Amares (Portugal) can be replicated in other similar events and, later on, a comparison can be made with the reality of a small cultural event.