Urban host community perceptions of tourism market segment impacts: Evidence from Indianapolis

Over the last decade, downtown Indianapolis, Indiana has experienced significant growth in tourism. As Indianapolis continues to develop their tourism attractions and resources, it is essential to gain an understanding of residents' opinions regarding development. As a result, there has been a proliferation of tourism impact studies in the last 30 years drawing connections between resident attitudes of perceived tourism impacts and development. However, past studies have only sampled residents who may or may not be involved in the tourism industry, and there has been little examination of urban tourist areas and specific tourism market segments and their perceived impacts.; The purpose of this study was to examine an urban population of tourism business representatives' perceptions of economic, environmental, and social impacts cultural, convention, and sport tourism may have in Indianapolis, Indiana. The tourism business industry was represented by membership in the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association (ICVA).; The study used a modified Urban Tourism Impact scale to examine economic, environmental, and social perceived impacts developed by Chen (2001). Analysis of the data included testing three models of structural relationships between tourism impacts and support for development in each of the tourism market segments through a confirmatory factor analysis. A standard multiple regression allowed for an examination of which tourism impacts were significant predictors for support for tourism development and a series of analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were used to examine any differences in support for each market segment and participant demographics.; The positive economic impacts consistently exerted influence in predicting support for tourism development in all three models. However, the social impacts played a greater explanatory role with all three market segments. The negative environmental impacts played a role in determining support for sport tourism only. Differences were found with those with a higher education level in predicting support for cultural tourism, but not convention or sport tourism. Policy makers and tourism planners in Indianapolis should monitor quality of life issues in the city for any changes and promote resident only days at attractions to remind residents of the social benefits tourism can bring to the community.