Towards a Theory of Stakeholders’ Perception of Tourism Impacts

This paper summarizes theoretical knowledge related to an issue of assessment of tourism impacts on a tourism destination. This paper pays special attention to stakeholders’ perception of tourism impacts as a popular approach to tourism impacts assessment in recent decades. Its aim is to map the key research focused on classification and assessment of tourism impacts in relation to regional stakeholders, using a summary and comparison of various research approaches over the past decades. The paper uses an integrative literature review of 28 papers published in top-rated journals which can be considered as a relevant sample of the research effort from the beginnings of 1990s. It compares commonly used approaches to the classification and assessment of tourism impacts through a comparative content analysis and points out their common characteristics and differences. The secondary aim is to define research implications as a theoretical and methodical basis for future research aimed at this topic.