What’s immigration got to do with it? Immigrant animosity and its effects on tourism

•Differences in perception exist between far-right voters and green voters.•Far-right voters hold more negative perceptions about the Dutch-Moroccans.•Discriminating variables concern perceptions about the Dutch-Moroccans.•Negative perceptions correlate negatively with intention of far-right to visit.•Implication of immigrant animosity in tourism affairs is validated.

In a multicultural society where multiculturalism has been reported to have failed, it was posited that natives who have negative perceptions about a minority group resident in their country were less likely to visit the country of origin of that minority group for tourism. The paper used political party preference (far-right wing voters versus their leftist counterparts) as an independent variable to test this hypothesis. Many people vote in accordance with an image of a party as representing their economic interests, religion, values and ideologies. The paper presents immigrant animosity as yet another type of animosity and a new concept to explain tourism behaviour.