**3. Results and Discussion**

Through a stratified sample, applied in 36 neighborhoods of Blumenau, we sought to analyze the opinions of 400 respondents living in the city, aged 16 or over, in the period from 3rd to 16th September. Of these 400 valid questionnaires, 202 (50.5%) were men, 50% were between 16 and 35, 33.5% were from 36 to 59, and 16.5% were 60 or older. About the respondents' average monthly family income, the majority showed that they received between R\$ 3001 and R\$ 8000 (54%), with the remaining receiving up to R\$ 3000 (30.3%) and over R\$ 8000 (15.8%).

About the means found regarding the subjective well-being of Blumenau residents and their perception of overtourism in the destination, it appears that the variables most perceived by residents are the problems related to the excess of tourists in the receiving destination, such as traffic conflicts (3.91) and vandalism (3.58) generated by the Oktoberfest. The variable referring to the residents' subjective well-being most perceived by them is the one that represents the happiness in participating in the festival, with an average of 3.48.

The results presented show that the community is happy to participate in the festival, but still realizes that the costs generated by it still exceed the feeling (Table 1). Such results are in line with what was exposed by Lee et al. [33], who states that the positive experience influences happiness in the destination, where tourists (focus of their study, but it also applies to the context of residents) seek happiness through a satisfactory tourist activity. Therefore, it appears that the perception of the negative impacts of Oktoberfest in Blumenau may be affecting the happiness of residents with the festival in their community.


**Table 1.** Averages related to the feeling of overtourism and subjective well-being of Blumenau residents.

Source: research data (2018).

On the other hand, residents demonstrated to perceive less the variables related to subjective well-being, since "feeling better about things and myself" after attending Oktoberfest and the fact that the festival improves the respondents' lives were the variables with lowest averages: 2.9 and 2.76, respectively. Thus, it appears that the population already shows characteristic traits of overtourism, perceiving predominantly negative aspects of the festival in their community. The results are similar to those found by Namberger et al. [48], who also analyzed the residents' opinion about holding an Oktoberfest.

The averages found in the present research, as well as the results generated by them, are also similar to those perceived by Ivlevs [7] and Yolal et al. [9]. In both contexts of analysis, concerns about the quality of life have had negative impacts on the residents' sense of well-being. The conflicts generated by the increased flow of tourists in the destination cause the residents' happiness to decrease significantly, making them perceive more sharply the costs of the activity in their community.

Subsequently, respondents were divided into two groups. The first group consisted of Blumenau residents who perceived a low average of well-being about the Oktoberfest at their destination (with averages between 1 and 3.99). The second group consisted of the portion of respondents who feel greater well-being in the festival, with averages between 4 and 5. The results found in the survey showed that the vast majority of Blumenau residents (73.3%) belonged to the first group, that is, they had low well-being concerning the largest festival held in their place of residence. Only 26.8% of residents showed that they belong to the second group.

These findings can be directly related to the descriptive statistics found in the research. The averages demonstrate that the residents predominantly perceive negative aspects related to the excess of tourists in Blumenau during the Oktoberfest. This finding corroborates what was exposed by Capocchi et al. [1] and Ivlevs [7], who also found that the feeling of overtourism and the perception of negative impacts promoted by tourism, cause discomfort or decreased the well-being of residents.

In order to assess more deeply the difference between groups of residents, two tests were performed, the univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Mann–Whitney. The first sought to determine, based on a dependent measure, whether samples came from populations with equal averages [1]. The second, on the other hand, is indicated for comparison of two unpaired groups, present in non-normal samples, to verify whether they belong to the same population [53]. It was decided to carry out the two tests due to the significant difference between the participants in each group. The results of the two tests were similar, demonstrating the existence of a statistically significant difference between the groups at a level of 0.001 in the first test and 0.000 in the second.

The results found in ANOVA regarding the residents' well-being at the Oktoberfest in Blumenau and its relationship with the overtourism feeling are shown in Table 2. In the Mann–Whitney test, the results were similar to the U value Mann–Whitney with 0.000 significance, Wilcoxon W of 43,071.000, Z value being −15.380, and bilateral significance at a level of 0.000.


**Table 2.** Univariate analysis of variance related to the well-being of Blumenau residents and the overtourism feeling.

Source: research data (2018).

Based on the results found in the ANOVA and Mann–Whitney tests, there are statistically significant differences between the two groups initially determined. Thereby, it can be assumed that Blumenau residents can be divided between those who have lower well-being with the Oktoberfest in the city and those who have higher well-being. These results are in line with the study applied by Yolal et al. [9], who identified both positive and negative influences on festivals and residents' well-being.

It is worth mentioning that there are signs that there is a certain level of rejection to the development of the festival since the majority of the population claims that it does not generate well-being in Blumenau. These findings are similar to the ones found by Ivlevs [7], which pointed out an increase in the arrival of tourists to a specific destination or the subjective residents' well-being.

Related to the overtourism feeling among Blumenau residents, the group of those with low–average well-being at the Oktoberfest in the destination had a higher level of overtourism feeling (m = 3.7). The second group, the ones with high–average well-being, had a lower overtourism feeling (m = 3.35), which means that the lower the feeling of well-being of the residents, the higher they will tend to feel uncomfortable with the changes caused by the increase in the flow of tourists to the destination.

The results are in line with the majority of research related to residents' attitudes about the excess of tourism or its impacts on the communities receiving the activity [8,45]. However, the research sought to analyze, among other aspects, the general attitude of residents. This paper aimed to relate the influence of residents' well-being in generating feelings about the excess of tourism in the destination.

Finally, as the main managerial contribution, we can state that for the long-term sustainable development of festivals in destinations, besides investing in social and infrastructure improvements for residents, managers also have to provide and motivate the feeling of objective and subjective well-being of the natives. This is because the residents' feeling of well-being can increase tolerance to the negative impacts promoted by the increased flow of tourists in the destinations.

This statement is in accordance with previous studies [6,29]. For the authors, tourism development should not compromise the residents' well-being, and, knowing the impacts of happiness on the tourists' lives, one can work strategically to improve the activity, motivation, and engagement of tourists. The results of the present research prove that this context also represents the happiness of the residents of destinations that conduct festivals.
