Opposition to golf-related tourism development: an interpretivist analysis of an online petition

Abstract

Studies of opposition to golf-related tourism development usually examine local views and attitudes. This paper explores the stance of a broader public using a new research tool, the analysis of online petitions. The study was motivated by an international online petition against a proposed golf resort at Cavo Sidero on Crete, Greece. Employing an interpretivist analysis of the petition material, it describes the object of opposition, analyses the “who”, “what” and “why” of the case, and derives a conceptual schema of opposition to golf-related tourism development. Five groups of interdependent reasons are found to explain the negative image and attitudes of the signees towards golf, golf courses, golf resorts and the project: value-related, golf development-related, project-related, contextual factors and critical trade-offs. Two profound and wider issues are noted: the place-specific, contingent and contextual nature of opposition and the spatiality of opposition to golf-related tourism development. Ways to use the findings of studies of opposition to assist rational tourism decision-making and management are probed. The last section reflects on the use of online petitions to study public stances and their role in participatory governance as well as on necessary future theoretical and methodological research to improve the proposed conceptual schema.