Residents’ perceptions and attitudes towards climate change: insights from an island tourism destination

In recent years, climate change has been attracting huge attention from policy makers, destination marketers, tourism businesses and local communities. However, there is still relatively limited research that adopts a resident-based perspective in this research area. This is particularly evident when island and coastal tourism destinations in the context of Italy are considered. This study was carried out to contribute to deepening the scientific debate on this topic by presenting and discussing findings of a factor analysis and a regression analysis applied to a sample of 1,403 individuals residing in the island of Sardinia (Italy). Based on the factor analysis, four factors were identified: “Concerns about climate change” (i.e. residents’ concerns about the negative impacts that climate change could generate), “Consciousness about climate change” (i.e. the extent to which individuals are conscious about climate change issues), “Geographical distance” (i.e. the extent to which people perceive that climate change can only significantly affect geographical areas that are far from where they live), and “Intention to act” (i.e. the extent to which individuals are willing to change their habits in order to cope with climate change). Hence, a linear regression analysis model was performed. Findings reveal that intention to act is positively and significantly influenced by “Concerns about climate change” and “Consciousness about climate change”, whilst it is negatively and significantly influenced by “Geographical distance”. Conversely, socio-demographics were not found to exert any significant influence on intention to act. Theoretical and managerial implications, and limits and future studies are deeply discussed.