Festival tourism, as a significant vehicle for cultural and tourism integration in county regions, has garnered increasing attention from local cultural and tourism authorities. This study examines the Tongliang Dragon Lantern Art Festival in Chongqing as a case study, employing a three-dimensional framework of socio-cultural, economic, and environmental aspect to analyse residents'perception differences toward festival tourism impacts. Questionnaire-based findings reveal that residents show strong positive perceptions of socio-cultural and economic impacts, but demonstrate heightened sensitivity to negative environmental impacts. Group differences are notable: females show greater sensitivity to environmental changes; residents with lower education levels perceive significantly weaker positive economic impacts than higher-educated groups; elderly residents display greater tolerance toward negative impacts; and newer residents (≤10 years of residence) perceive environmental impacts more acutely than long-term residents (≥21 years). Accordingly, the study puts forward corresponding recommendations based on the need for county festival culture inheritance, festival economic sharing and environmental sustainability to provide reference for county festival tourism development decisions.

Xiaoya Huang. Residents' Perception Differences Regarding County Festival Tourism Impacts: A Case Study of the Tongliang Dragon Lantern Art Festival in Chongqing. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2025), Vol. 8, Issue 9: 20-29. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2025.080904.

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