ABSTRACTS & FULL PAPERS The 7 th International Conference on Services Management ICSM-7 | IFT Macao | 10-12 December 2014 30 INVESTIGATING THE FACTORS AFFECTING RESIDENCE ATTITUDE TOWARDS TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: A CASE OF EDIRNE TURKEY Aydemir Ay Beykent University Turkey Ali Bavik Macau University of Science and Technology Macao Erkan Taskiran Duzce University Turkey Erdogan Ekiz King Abdulaziz University Saudi Arabia ABSTRACT For a policy to be successful in developing tourism in any destination it requires input from the stakeholders in general, and local people in particular. Only with the support of residents one can talk about acceptance. And to do that their perceptions need to be investigated. Keeping this in mind, the purpose of the study is to investigate the factors affecting the residents’ support of tourism development in Edirne, Turkey. A questionnaire of the study has been developed as a result of an extensive literature review. Judgmental sampling method was used in the study while creating the sample pool of 750 people who reside in Edirne. Results of the analysis reveal that the ‘economic factors’ are the most important elements in residents’ support for tourism development. The study contributes to tourism planning and management of Edirne as well as similar rising Asian cities. Implications for the tourism planning and management of destination are discussed. Finally, limitations and directions for future research are summarized. Keywords: tourism development, residents’ perceptions, tourism policies, Edirne INTRODUCTION Tourism is an international movement, not only is seen as an economic event, but also has political, social, environmental and cultural dimensions which has a vital importance upon society and social structure of related region. Tourism development may cause local residents to face with some negative and positive effects such as cultural change by dominant culture, or meeting with unfamiliar culture. Accordingly, when evaluating the effects of tourism, it is needed to examine income-yielding properties such as financial and economic results, along with the effects coming out by cultural and social structure.