Exploring over-Tourism: A Stakeholder Analysis of Visitor-Resident Conflicts in Post-COVID Hong Kong

Over-tourism is a recently identified yet ambiguously defined phenomenon that lacks a clear consensus in both the tourism industry and academia. While research on this topic surged before the COVID-19 pandemic, it focused on destination management and traveller behaviour, often neglecting the complex interactions among stakeholders in tourist cities. Hong Kong, as a major international tourist destination, has long experienced issues with over-tourism and visitor-resident conflicts. This study aims to examine the dynamics of these conflicts by employing conflict theory to analyze the perceptions of various stakeholders regarding over-tourism in a post-COVID context. Through stakeholder analysis, key stakeholders were identified via a literature review, and interviews were conducted with 44 entities, including government officials, businesses, tourists, residents, and media, which helped to create a stakeholder power-interest matrix. Additionally, a survey using a 5-point Likert scale with 120 respondents assessed benefits, negative impacts, and types of conflicts. The findings indicate that the definition of over-tourism is fluid and context-dependent. In Hong Kong, visitor-resident conflicts are shaped by cultural, social, transactional, and resource issues, government policy and media-driven informational conflicts. This study provides insights into the development of communication strategies for tourist cities by examining broad stakeholder groups and assesses how different groups perceive over-tourism to better address urban tourism conflicts.