Resumo: Residents are considered key role-players in the tourism industry as tourism happens in and around communities. The success of a mega-event such as the FIFA 2010 World Cup is to a certain extent dependent on the attitudes of residents towards the event. South Africa went to great lengths to create positive attitudes towards the FIFA 2010 World Cup and prepared South Africans for the effects and impacts. It is, however, important to determine residents’ perceptions of the impacts as this information can assist in managing future events. It is therefore the aim of this paper to determine residents’ perceptions of the impacts of the event and to explore the differences between gender, age and education level on the identified tourism impacts. Quantitative research was conducted by means of a survey in June 2010 in four host cities resulting in 1 055 questionnaires. The factor analysis revealed four impacts, namely Positive community impacts, Negative community impacts, Trade impacts and Visible impacts. An ANOVA was done and significant differences were found between gender, age and occupation and the various factors, but no significant differences were found on education. It is therefore clear that certain positive and negative impacts exist and that the perceptions of tourism impacts can be influenced by certain demographic characteristics.
