Residents’ Diachronic Perception of the Impacts of Ecological Resettlement in a World Heritage Site

As one of the main factors in any tourist destination, residents’ perception of the impacts of ecological resettlement has a substantial influence on the sustainable development of any world heritage site. Our research takes the residents of three different resettlement locations in the Wulingyuan scenic area, a world heritage site, as the object of our survey. Based on questionnaire investigations in 2010 and 2016, this article analyzes the residents’ diachronic perception of the impacts of ecological resettlement. Independent sample t-tests and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) are used to compare the differences in residents’ perception toward ecological relocation and analyse how demographic characteristics affect residents’ perception. Multiple stepwise regression analysis is applied to explore the main factors that contribute to the differences in the perception of impacts of ecological resettlement. The results show that during the study period, respondents have the strongest perceptions of the economic, socio-cultural, resource-environment and psychological impacts. However, they have negative perceptions of relocation policy impacts. Compared with 2010, residents with different gender, age, education level, income level and engagement in tourism have significant differences in perception of impacts of resettlement in 2016. Multiple stepwise regression analysis demonstrates that the perceptions of impacts of the ecological resettlement and economic policy are the primary factors to affect residents’ overall perceptions.