Abstract: The development of tourism has led to an extensive impact on the tourism destination communities, and local residents are the main recipients of those impacts. Understanding the residents’ perception of tourism impact and encouraging them to participate in the activities of tourism are the most effective means to increase the positive tourism impact and reduce the negative tourism impact. The structural model involving residents’ perception of tourism impact and their attitude and participation behavior in ecotourism development is tested. The model consists of four latent constructs and five path hypotheses, and is based on 457 face to face questionnaires returned by residents in three ecotourism communities of Dalian that is one of the three best tourism cities in China. It is found that residents’ positive perception toward ecotourism has a significant positive impact on residents’ attitude toward ecotourism development and their participation behavior. The residents’ negative perception toward ecotourism has an insignificant impact on residents’ attitude toward ecotourism development; however, it has a significant positive impact on residents’ participation behavior. In conclusion, residents’ participation behavior is positively affected by their attitude toward the development of ecotourism.

Key words: tourism impact, residents’ perception, participation behavior, eco-tourism