ABSTRACT
The tourism sector, which develops day by day, has positive and negative effects, directly or indirectly, on destinations. These effects are: economic, environmental, sociocultural and social psychological influences. The social psychological effects of tourism have had limited consideration in the literature. Social psychology, which deals with the relationship between the individual and society, presents important approaches that can be used to explain the attitudes and behaviors of tourist groups and local people. From this point of view, the relationship between tourists and the local people in this study was examined within the scope of Allport’s group contact hypothesis, and the effects on the attitudes of tourists were revealed by a literature search using qualitative research methods. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that there are significant social psychological influences at the point of change of tourism attitudes. It has been determined that Allport’s contact hypothesis can be used as a tool to explain the interaction of tourists and local people.
