From Fake News to Social Media Pop Culture and Climate Change: What Elements are Impacting the Tourism Industry in the Twenty-first Century?

Understanding the elements influencing negative sentiments about tourists is critical to the understanding of risk which local communities face from over-tourism. It additionally affects the traveler’s satisfaction, repeat visitation intentions, and positive/negative word of mouth, therefore potentially affecting the image of the tourism industry. The current study employs the platform of Integrated Threat Theory (ITT) seeking to understand the interaction between the local community and travelers to determine the impact on the tourism industry. Travel and tourism trends like social media popular culture, low-cost housing, and economy traveling options have generated a new environment of interaction between travelers and the local communities. To this, we add elements like fake news, climate change, increasing real estate prices, cultural loss, disturbance, crime, unwanted activities, and waste management issues. This mixed methods study aims to attain socially sustainable practices for balancing the negative sentiments of local communities and fostering tourism.