Destination Residents Research Articles

Inhibitors to host community participation in sustainable tourism development in developing countries

The involvement of host communities (or destination residents), particularly in developing countries, is critical to the success of tourism development and to the creation of a “Just Destination”. This paper investigates host community perceptions about obstacles to their participation in tourism development in Lombok, Indonesia, providing new insights into institutional influences on tourism opportunities and issues. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques targeted separate groups of destination residents who live in a developed tourism destination, a less developed tourism destination, a remote rural village far away from tourism destinations, as well as a group of university students. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, qualitative questionnaires and observation, and were analysed using content analysis. Results show three main institutional factors inhibit host community participation in tourism: tourism agencies, private sector providers and tourism infrastructure, and perceptions of the negative impacts of tourism. The underperformance of state tourism agencies and private sector providers resulted in a lack of tourism infrastructure and limitations on host community opportunities to participate in tourism development and businesses. The findings suggest the need for improvement in the training of state tourism agency employees, better coordination among government agencies, and improved education and training for tourism operators.

Innovation co-creation for effective sustainable tourism development management in Egypt

Innovation co-creation in tourism management leads to effective sustainable tourism development. The purpose of this research paper is to explain the degree to which innovation is existent in the Egyptian sustainable tourism business development policies. It introduces some suggestions to improve the sustainability standards in the Egyptian tourism development programmes in an innovation co-creative manner for the benefits of current and upcoming local residents of tourist destinations. The research population is tourism managers from tourism companies’ category A in Cairo and Giza governorates only and the other categories of companies such as B and C were not considered. Data of the study were collected through questionnaire forms that were distributed among tourism managers and experts. Statistical approaches such as statistical means, t-test, regression analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to validate and test the research outcomes. The research outcomes explain that the effective sustainable tourism management level in Egypt is low and tourism business sector companies in Egypt do not have sufficient policies to be more oriented by the main factors that control the implementation of innovation co-creation strategy or policy for the purpose of sustainable tourism development.

Social impacts of tourism as perceived by state-planned tourism destination residents: the case of Huatulco, Mexico

Drawing from primarily quantitative data collected in 2010 among adult residents (n = 204) in the state-planned tourism destination of Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico, this paper examines the ways in which local residents perceive the social effects of regional tourism development. Currently, socio-demographic impacts of tourism are insufficiently addressed within developing economies and within tourism development initiatives crafted and implemented under state control. Field-tested questionnaire data and ethnographic fieldwork indicate that among Huatulco residents tourism is not viewed as positively associated with increasing rates of crime, prostitution, or drugs. However, increasing variables such as traffic, noise, littering, or population size are associated with Huatulco’s tourism economy. Huatulco residents’ views on population mobility are mixed. The results presented herein support previous findings within the literatures on tourism impacts, as well as challenge some existing assertions on the correla...

Comments on Point:Counterpoint: High altitude is/is not for the birds!

TO THE EDITOR: The debate between Scott et al. (6) and Llanos et al. (4) highlights the remarkable ability of birds and mammals to adapt and survive at high altitudes and cope with reduced oxygen (O2) availability. Scott and colleagues (6) make a compelling argument that birds are far superior to mammals at adapting and thriving in hypoxic environments, both at rest and during exercise. While their argument is supported by comparisons between birds and terrestrial mammals, it ignores marine mammals. Marine mammals such as seals are routinely exposed to and tolerate long bouts of hypoxia during breath-hold diving. For example, elephant seals may dive to depths of nearly 1,600 m and occasionally remain submerged for 2 h (3). Moreover, marine mammals can be exposed to partial pressures of arterial oxygen (PaO2) as low as 12 mmHg during free dives (5), which is less than the 20 mmHg observed in the bar-headed goose (6). Interestingly, a PaO2 of 12 mmHg observed in elephant seals corresponds to arterial saturations and O2 content of only 8% and 2.7 ml O2/dl (5). Thus marine mammals such as the elephant seal demonstrate a remarkable hypoxia tolerance. The integration of several key physiological adaptations including 1) substantially greater myoglobin concentrations compared to other mammals, 2) reductions in metabolism, 3) a greater reliance on aerobic metabolism (i.e., less lactate production), 4) a host of dramatic acute cardiovascular adjustments; and 5) an increased intrinsic cerebral hypoxia tolerance allow marine mammals to thrive in hypoxic environments and enable long deep dives (1–3).

Exploring social representations of tourism planning: issues for governance

A major challenge for tourism as a social and economic activity and as an academic study is the integration of multiple perspectives into coherent frameworks. This paper explores this challenge and argues that a social representations approach allows for the critical analysis of formal approaches to tourism planning. Special attention is given to tourism development and governance in Africa and other emerging destinations. A content/semiotic analysis was conducted to examine figures summarising tourism planning models presented in the academic and government planning literature. This revealed a dominant social representation of tourism planning in which destination residents play only a minor role and are typically excluded from tourism governance and external agents, from both the private and public sectors, and their views of tourist needs are dominant. Most planning models were narrowly focused, had limited evaluation of all tourism benefits and costs, paid little attention to non-economic factors and did not integrate into wider development processes. The paper argues that this social representation assumes the core objective of tourism planning is to enhance outcomes for tourists and tourism businesses rather than for destination residents. Measures to enhance local governance capacity are suggested, with examples from the health, education and tourism sectors.

Determinants of the Competitive Advantage of Residential Tourism Destinations in Spain

This paper focuses on an analysis of the tourism competitiveness of residential destinations on the Spanish coast, applying Porter's competitive advantage theory. This analysis is conducted with a hypothesis test using a structural equation model based on Porter's competitive diamond. The paper shows that by analysing a range of variables, it is possible to develop attributes related to competitiveness which constitute Porter's diamond model, confirming that this theory is appropriate for explaining the tourism development processes in residential tourism destinations on the Spanish coast. The results show how the competitive difference between destinations in such a specific geographical area is based mainly on small details belonging to the advanced factors of the competitive advantage theory. Finally, there is cause for concern in the fact that the supporting and related sectors determinant has a negative influence on competitiveness.

Rethinking social impacts of tourism research: A new research agenda

Understanding the social impacts of tourism on communities is extremely important for government at all levels so that action can be taken to reduce the likelihood of a community backlash against tourists and tourism development. Given that the residents of many tourism destinations are a fundamental part of the tourism ‘product’, resident attitudes and behaviour have a sizable impact on the success or otherwise of a destination. Research on the social impacts of tourism on communities is substantial and ongoing and while advances have been made in the area, the research has not addressed some of the deep seated issues faced by tourist destinations. This paper provides a critique of the social impact of tourism literature, highlighting the inadequacies in the research that has been conducted to date, which then leads to the development of a new conceptual framework. The paper traces the key developments in social impact research and argues that the predominance of quantitative methods potentially limits our ability to gain a more in-depth understanding of the impacts and how they influence both the host community and tourists. The paper finds that the quantitative focus from previous social impact research has led to a narrow understanding of the issues surrounding social impacts and proposes a new research agenda based on ‘layers’ of social impact understanding through the use of ethnography or phenomenology. The paper concludes with recommendations to progress social impact research beyond simply describing the issues towards explanations of why they occur by suggesting that social impact research examine, in greater depth, the values and intrinsic characteristics of the host residents.

Not All Consumerism has a Shady Side!

Consumerism and tourism on mass scales are two defining characteristics of modern society which have both inspired much criticism. They are also closely connected and certain examples of tourism are seen as undesirable manifestations of consumerism. Questions of whether the censure of the phenomena is justified and the nature of their relationship are addressed in this brief commentary written in response to the research probe which raises enduring and still pertinent issues about tourism as a human and commercial activity, underlying dynamics and impacts. Reactions to the proposition that consumerism encourages bad tourism partly depend on the meanings ascribed to the terms. The notion of bad tourism is frequently associated with selected instances of modern mass tourism and its consequences, exemplified by the urbanization of coastlines around the world deemed by detractors to have been ‘ruined’. Large resorts and developed seashores are not, however, intrinsically bad and are a core visitor attraction with the capacity to perform valuable functions for tourists and destination residents. Their popularity may alleviate pressures elsewhere and protect more sensitive and vulnerable socio-cultural and physical environments which are under threat from the shift away from standardized tourism to a series of markets of vacationers looking for novelty of setting and experience. Smaller scale tourism of a sort typified by ecotourism and cultural tourism is lauded by suppliers and participants. It is hailed as the antithesis of and superior to modern mass tourism because of the rectitude of motives and positive effects, yet it is not necessarily better or to be welcomed. Tourists who search out pristine territories and remote communities could cause disruption to fragile eco-systems and everyday life, despite protestations about responsible travel (Butcher 2003). What constitutes bad and good tourism is clearly subject to interpretation and perceptions reflect the position of the individual and group alongside circumstances prevailing in countries of departure and arrival. Academic opinion is also divided within and between disciplines, although social scientists as a whole have been very fierce critics of tourism which is perhaps something of an easy target for them. The long standing dispute about whether tourism is a blessing or blight (Young 1973) would seem to be one that will never be fully resolved; for almost every argument, there is a counter-argument which has resulted in a circularity of discourse. Tourism as a field of enquiry and action is full of complexities and contradictions, encompassing an immense range of individual behaviour and commercial products as well as spaces where it occurs. Generalizations become difficult and opinions about badness or goodness are determined by personal, economic, political, socio-cultural, geographical and historical contexts. Interestingly, the debate is not confined to instances from contemporary society and Baranowski (2004) writes about consumerism and mass tourism in the Third Reich in her study of the Nazi ‘Strength through Joy’ programme. It claimed to be one of the largest leisure and travel organisers in the world and a force for good, integrating work and leisure, a view which soon became untenable.

Synthetic Evaluation on Health Quality of Liaoning Tourism Ecosystem

The tourism ecosystem is the kind of special ecosystem in which destination residents, the external tourists and its surrounding environment are tightly interacted, and it is also the nature -economy-society complex that mainly carries out the tourism activity. As a multiplexed system, the tourism ecosystem also has the healthy problems. From the angle of forced system, this paper analyzes reasons of the system’s healthy problems of Liaoning province and successfully builds tourism ecosystem health evaluating indicator system with the utilization pressure, the state, the response model. Besides, this paper carries on the synthetic evaluation and the analysis to the tourism ecosystem health's indicator system through bestowing on the weights, and which proposes the new research mentality for the tourism sustainable development in Liaoning province. Key words: tourism ecosystem; health; indicator system; evaluation

Tourism in Ethnic Communities: Two Miao Villages in China

The paper is concerned with the ways in which ethnic culture is presented and experienced by tourists with particular reference to two villages in China inhabited by members of the Miao minority group and popular with visitors. The study is based on qualitative and quantitative data derived from primary and secondary sources and findings reveal contrasts and similarities within and between destination residents and visitors regarding attitudes to tourism and its cultural impacts, especially in terms of authenticity. While the cases display unique features, their analysis affords more general insights into the characteristics of this particular form of heritage tourism and its consequences.

Tourism and Quality of Life: Towards a More Critical Approach

The concept of quality of life (QoL) is implicit in much of the academic literature on tourism impacts. Tourism academics have explored in some detail the contributions that tourism makes to various aspects of the QoL of destination residents. But these explorations have been limited by the social representations that academics hold of tourism. This paper examines those social representations and argues that a more explicit consideration of QoL can help in the development of a better framework for critically analysing tourism impacts. This framework is explored in a qualitative study of social representations of tourism and its impacts on the individual tourist.

Residents' perceptions of the impacts of special event tourism

PurposeThe purpose of this research was to explore residents' perceptions of special event tourism at a destination. Specifically, the research examined residents' perceptions of the social, economic and environmental impacts of special event tourism on the destination. The study also examined dimensions of community life that were impacted or curtailed as a result of event tourism.Design/methodology/approachData were collected by means of a telephone survey. The survey solicited residents' perceptions of the social, economic, and environmental impacts of special event tourism. The study was exploratory and followed a descriptive design.FindingsResidents are generally in favor of events that contribute socially and economically to the destination. They are, however, not ambivalent to some of the negative impacts, but are willing to cope with these negative impacts as long as the perceived benefits exceed the negative impacts.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the sample was adequate for statistical analysis, a larger sample size would yield more generalizable results. Consequently, caution should be used in making generalizations based on this study.Practical implicationsThe constant question faced by destination managers and tourism development authorities is how to plan for optimal tourism development, while at the same time minimize the impact of this development on the resident population. One approach is to monitor residents' opinions of perceived impacts as a means of incorporating community reaction into tourism planning and development. Hence, this study proposes an all inclusive community‐centric approach to event tourism policy making rather than a top‐down approach.Originality/valueBoth practitioners and educators will benefit from the results of this study as it provides insight into a destination's residents' perceptions of special event tourism. This topic has received little attention in the past.

Beyond Tourist Gazes and Performances

Theoretical debates about the relationship between tourism and Latin American development are often based upon the distinction between tourism's performative and its visual aspects. Though gazes and performances are important, they occur in the context of a usurpation of land and labor that lead to the displacement and exploitation of the residents of tourist destinations. Examination of U.S. consumption of tourist destinations and hospitality labor in Puerto Rico and Mexico reveals that tourism exacerbates inequalities between tourists and service providers, calling into question its long-term sustainability.

Tourism Sciences or Tourism Studies?

We regard this invitation to prepare a paper on the topic “Tourism Sciences or Tourism Studies” as both a privilege and a challenge. It is a privilege, in that it provides an opportunity to present a personal perspective on a topic that has been discussed and debated for some time, yet it is a challenge also, because there has been only a modest resolution of the issues involved. Tourism science is designed to provide a theoretical understanding of tourism. Tourism studies (as the applied study of tourism) are designed to enhance our ability to effectively manage the destination and, in doing so, enhance the well-being of the residents of a tourism destination. It is hoped that the overview of the material we used to make the distinction between tourism science and tourism studies has been helpful. While we would have liked to provide much greater detail in order to make certain of our arguments more effective, we have faced fairly severe space limitations. We can only hope that we have still been able to convey the essence of our message.

Exploring Cross-cultural Differences in Attitudes towards Responsible Tourist Behaviour: A Comparison of Korean, British and Australian Tourists

Culture is an important dimension of tourism, both as an attraction for visitors and as a characteristic that influences visitor behaviour and interaction with destination residents and tourism staff. In recognition of this importance, there has been a steady increase in the number of studies examining cross-cultural differences in various aspects of tourism. The environment is also an important dimension of tourism, and discussions of sustainability and the management of the environmental impacts of tourism are very common in the literature, especially in publications on eco-tourism. This paper will bring together these two core dimensions of culture and environment in an analysis of cross-cultural differences in tourist attitudes towards eco-tourism. More specifically, the paper reports on a study comparing the responses of Korean, Australian and British tourists with a set of 14 statements designed to measure attitudes towards responsible tourist behaviours. The results indicated that, while age and gender were variables that influenced some tourist attitudes, there were also significant differences between the three national cultural groups on most of the attitude statements. In addition, a series of factor analyses indicated that the different national cultural groups organized their perceptions of responsible tourist behaviour in very different ways. Implications of these results for the provision of eco-tourism products and for enhancing sustainable tourism are discussed.

Educational Attainment in New and Established Latino Metropolitan Destinations*

Objective. This study examines the educational attainment of Latinos who immigrated to the United States by age 12. We compare the educational attainment of Latino immigrants in established and emerging Latino immigrant gateway cities in order to identify whether there are any significant differences in educational attainment between immigrants in these two gateways types and why such differences might exist.Methods. We employ OLS regression using the 2000 5% Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample.Results. Our results suggest that contrary to speculation, educational attainment among Latino immigrants is significantly higher in new Latino destinations than in established Latino metropolitan areas, although much of the difference is mediated by demographic factors. Migration history, English proficiency, ethnicity, and citizenship status account for a substantial portion of the differences in educational attainment between destination types. The migration history of these immigrants suggests a selection effect: only those immigrants who are relative newcomers to their new Latino destination have significantly higher educational attainment than those in established metropolitan areas.Conclusions. We find that educational attainment among Latino immigrants is higher in new Latino destinations. Our study suggests that more highly educated Latino immigrants are choosing new Latino destinations, while longer‐term immigrant residents of new destinations are faring no better (in terms of educational levels) than those in established destinations. English proficiency, ethnicity, and citizenship status are confirmed as factors strongly associated with educational attainment among immigrants.

Re‐Placing Whiteness in Spatial Assimilation Research

This paper works through some of the epistemological and methodological consequences of an unreflexive use of white suburbs as the expected residential destination in U.S. spatial assimilation research. Foregrounding immigrant suburbanization in spatial assimilation occludes alternative geographic trajectories; simply put, spatial diffusion need not be central city to suburban decentralization. More problematically, spatial assimilation research often translates residential movement to the suburbs into increasing proximity with whites. This results in the degree of segregation from whites becoming the standard by which immigrant assimilative progress is gauged. Building on critical whiteness studies and recent research on aspatial assimilation, we develop some new theoretical entry points into the process of spatial assimilation. We treat metropolitan areas as constellations of neighborhoods rather than a central city–suburban doughnut and become circumspect in our use of whites as a referent category. Our investigation of spaces of assimilation in greater Los Angeles reveals that established immigrants are more dispersed residentially than recent conational arrivals, although the effect varies by group. For many immigrant groups, these dispersions from concentrations of initial settlement do not reduce segregation from whites. Segregation lessens over time, however, between immigrants and other native‐born Americans. For many groups, but by no means all, a dispersed residential pattern is associated with higher quality neighborhoods.

Turning 16 Days into 16 Years Through Olympic Legacies

The hosting of mega-events such as the Olympic Games provides a short period of intense excitement for residents and enhances the long-term awareness of the host destination in tourism markets. However, unless the event is carefully and strategically planned with destination and community development in mind, it can be difficult to justify the large investments required. This article focuses on two examples (the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, and the Salt Lake City 2002 Games) in an attempt to demonstrate how “legacy planning” can help ensure that the hosting of a short-term mega-event such as the Olympics can contribute to the development and consolidation of facilities and programs that will benefit destination residents for many years.

Understanding population growth in the peri-urban region.

This article advocates a new approach to understanding periurban population growth. A conceptual model is developed that identifies four distinct growth processes: suburbanization, counterurbanization, population retention, and centripetal migration. Each of these growth processes acts differently on particular population subgroups. The differences are reflected in variations in the spatial manifestation of periurban growth within Australia. Suburbanization process is differentiated from counterurbanization by employing three indicators of suburbanization. The first indicator includes the broad situation of the periurban destination and is defined as in-migration from the metropolitan area to adjacent, accessible periurban locations. The second indicator lies in the assessment of the commuting and social linkages with the metropolitan maintained by migrants. The third indicator is the nature of the migrants' residential destination site. Counterurbanization is largely seen to be a shift in population down the urban hierarchy to smaller centers and localities beyond the existing metropolitan boundaries. Furthermore, the article discusses the four indicators that distinguish counterurbanization from suburbanization. Another important process contributing to periurban growth is population retention. Two key indicators that lie in the measurement of increased period of residence and reduced rates of out-migration overtime characterize this process.

Assessing the linguistic dimension in the perception of tourism impacts by residents of a tourist destination: a case study of Porthmadog, Gwynedd

This case study, based on a survey of 200 residents of North Wales, warns against ascribing too much influence to linguistic competence in Welsh to the causes of residents' perceptions of tourism impacts in Wales. Other factors are also found to be of importance, dependent upon the specific impact being considered. Caution is also advised in any tendency to characterize impact perceptions in terms of Welsh and English traditions.