A Study of How Indigenous Peoples Perceive the Impact of Tourism and Support These Attitudes in Their Tribes

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze how indigenous peoples perceive the impact of tourism and their attitudes regarding its development within their tribes. Indigenous people from three tribes in south Alishan, Taiwan—Shanmei, Chashan, and Xinmei—were included in this study. The random sample method was used to carry out the survey, and a total of 256 effective questionnaires were collected. After statistical analysis, the findings of this study are as follows: 1. Although indigenous peoples perceive tourism’s environmental impact as negative, they tend to be supportive of tourism development; 2. When indigenous peoples perceive positive economic and sociocultural impacts from tourism development, they tend to have higher levels of support; and 3. When indigenous peoples have a negative perception of the economic impact of tourism development, their support is lower. According to the above results, this study puts forward some suggestions for the management indigenous tourism efforts and future research directions.