The Environmental Impacts of Tourism— Whose Responsibility Is It Anyway? The Case Study of Mykonos

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differential perceptions of residents, entrepreneurs, and tourists toward the negative environmental impacts of tourism on the Greek island of Mykonos. The authors interviewed 115 residents, entrepreneurs, and tourists in Hora, the capital of Mykonos, during the beginning of the 1993 summer season. It was hypothesized that each of the three groups would consider the other two more responsible for the creation of negative environmental impacts caused by tourism. The results only par tially supported this hypothesis. Perceptual gaps were found between tourists and the other two groups. Tourists considered both residents and entrepreneurs to be more responsible than themselves for the negative environmental impacts of tourism. No gaps were found between residents' and entrepreneurs' responses. Both entrepreneurs and residents perceived the environmental impacts to be lower than tourists did. The most interesting finding was that all three groups — including the residents themselves — considered the residents to be more responsible than anyone else for the creation of tourism's negative environ mental impacts.