Using Importance-performance Analysis of Resident Perceptions to Inform a Tourism Development Framework.

Gateway communities commonly border, serve as entry points to protected lands. Due to their high quality of life, gateway communities have become a magnet for a growing number of people be they permanent or seasonal residents. But it is generally because of their unique natural attributes that they face issues of tourism development and growth. As a result, gateway communities offer important lessons for other rural areas grappling with rapid growth and change. A variation of Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) was used in this study whereby residents evaluated environmental, socio-cultural and socio-economic area attributes. IPA was chosen to serve as an additional input for communities interested in employing a tourism planning framework such as Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP). The findings suggest environmental attributes make the area special with them considered both important and of real concern currently and in the future. With the exception of a few items no other examined attributes were perceived the same as the environmental items. The modified IPA used in this study is a tool that can help inform a VERP framework intended to address tourism development as well as provide a visual means for those interested in better understanding resident perceptions.