Residents' support for tourism development: The role of residents' place image and perceived tourism impacts

Drawing on the triple bottom line approach for tourism impacts (economic, socio-cultural and environmental) and adopting a non-forced approach for measuring residents' perception of these impacts, this study explores the role of residents' place image in shaping their support for tourism development. The tested model proposes that residents' place image affects their perceptions of tourism impacts and in turn their support for tourism development. The results stress the need for a more flexible and resident-oriented measurement of tourism impacts, revealing that more favorable perceptions of the economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts lead to greater support. Moreover, while residents' place image has been largely neglected by tourism development studies, the findings of this study reveal its significance in shaping residents' perception of tourism impacts as well as their level of support. The practical implications of the findings for tourism planning and development are also discussed.     

The impacts of international tourism demand on economic growth of small economies dependent on tourism

This paper studies the impacts on economic growth of a small tourism-driven economy caused by an increase in the growth rate of international tourism demand. We present a formal model and empirical evidence. The ingredients of the dynamic model are a large population of intertemporally optimizing agents and an AK technology representing tourism production. The model shows that an increase in the growth of tourism demand leads to transitional dynamics with gradually increasing economic growth and increasing terms of trade. In our empirical application, an econometric methodology is applied to annual data of Antigua and Barbuda from 1970 to 2008. We perform a cointegration analysis to look for the existence of a long-run relationship among variables of economic growth, international tourism earnings and the real exchange rate. The exercise confirms the theoretical findings.     

Perceived impacts of medical tourism development on community wellbeing

Community leaders and tourism authorities in Las Vegas have suggested the promotion and development of medical tourism to improve the economy and quality of life for residents. The present study uses social exchange theory with spillover theory as the conceptual framework to examine factors of economic performance of medical tourism, overall community satisfaction, health care satisfaction and attitudes toward medical tourism; these factors influence on residents' perceptions of medical tourism's impact on community wellbeing, which in turn affects willingness to pay higher taxes and support for medical tourism development. The findings revealed that the greater the economic performance of medical tourism, the more positive the impact of medical tourism to community wellbeing was perceived. Similarly, attitudes toward medical tourism and overall community satisfaction positively influenced the perceived impact of medical tourism on community wellbeing. Finally, community wellbeing positively influenced residents' willingness to pay higher taxes and support medical tourism development.     

The impacts of immigrants and institutions on bilateral tourism flows

In this paper, we use data on recent bilateral tourism flow from 34 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries to 52 middle-to low-income countries for the period 1995–2010 to determine whether immigration, trade and institutional quality play a role in driving OECD nationals to visit immigrant-source countries. Except for the African countries, the results show that immigrants residing in OECD countries have a positive advertising effect for their home country, inducing tourism flows from OECD countries. We also find that the quality of institutions, along with freedom and civil liberty indices, are important in selecting tourism destinations. A massive 8% of the variation in tourism flows can be accounted for by these factors. These results hold for the subsample and the whole sample with two exceptions: European and African destinations. We posit that this feature of the data exists because European (African) countries are so similar to each other, and small differences in the indexes do not matter at the top (bottom) of the distribution. By controlling for gravity and macroeconomic stability variables, we also show that the trade flows between countries, among other factors, play a crucial and stable role on tourism flows. Dynamic panel data estimation is used to account for the influence of repeat visits and support our findings.     

Residents' perceptions of tourism development in Benalmádena (Spain)

This study examines the residents' perceptions of the impact of tourism in Benalmádena and the profiles of the residents according to socio-demographic characteristics. A questionnaire assessed how these characteristics influence the residents' perceptions towards the environment, economy, and socio-cultural aspects. The survey was administered to a stratified sample of 770 residents in Benalmádena. Results show a significant effect of socio-demographic variables on perception of tourism impact. The educational background, place of birth and how long respondents had been living in the community explain a significant amount of the variance in overall attitudes. Interaction analyses revealed that place of birth moderated the relationship between the tourism dimensions and the years of residence. For instance, the respondents with less than five years of residence showed more positive attitude towards the impact of tourism. We offer a profile of these residents according to their perceptions of the impact of tourism in their community.     

Modeling tourism impacts on air pollution: The case study of PM10 in Mallorca

Tourism has begun to be acknowledged as being a significant contributor to the increase in environmental externalities, especially to climate ch ange. Various studies have started to estimate and compute the role of the different tourism sectors that contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These estimations have been made from a sectorial perspective, assessing the contribution of air transport, accommodation or other tourism-related economic sectors. In contrast with this and in order to evaluate the impact of tourism on air pollution from a joint perspective, this paper explores the relationship between daily concentrations of PM₁₀ and the number of tourists in Mallorca (Spain). The results show that the daily stock of tourists is not only a significant predictor of air pollution concentration levels but also a variable whose inclusion improves the standard specification of urban air pollution models that have the common feature of using weather conditions as main explanatory variables. Furthermore, by using a Generalized Additive Model in its semi-parametric form it is shown that a 1% increase in tourist numbers can be related to up to a 0.45% increase in PM₁₀ concentration levels.     

Litter impacts on scenery and tourism on the Colombian north Caribbean coast

This paper provides the location, scenery and litter evaluation of 35 Colombian Caribbean beaches (9 remote, 9 village, 14 urban and 3 resort). Four litter grades were found. A: excellent (5); B: good (8); C: fair (19) and D: poor (3). A Decision Value parameter (D), for scenery gave: Class I – extremely attractive/natural, D > 0.85, 6 sites; Class II – attractive/natural sites, D = 0.85 –0.65, 2 sites; Class III – mainly natural sites, few outstanding features, D = 0.65–0.4, 1 site; Class IV – mainly unattractive sites, D = 0.4 to zero, 6 sites; Class V – very unattractive sites, D = <0, 20 sites. Litter amounts placed most beaches into a poor scenic category and many scenic beaches could jump a grade by means of clean-ups. A graphic methodology highlighted beaches with contradictory results for litter/scenic grades. Tourists abhor littered beaches and clean-ups would improve scenery scores.     

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.     

Service robots and perceived discrimination in tourism and hospitality

This study explores the influences of the incorporation of service robots in the service delivery systems of tourism and hospitality companies on the perceived discrimination of tourists and tourism employees. In doing so, a conceptual framework is proposed to explain the relationships between robots-based service delivery systems in tourism and hospitality (e.g., fully robotised and mixed service delivery systems) and discrimination. This paper demonstrates that although service robots may be advantageous in eliminating/mitigating perceived discrimination (from employees to tourists, tourists to tourists, tourists to employees, employer/employee to employee), using robots can also create or aggravate perceived discrimination. Though this study is the first attempt on the subject and presents beneficial knowledge for tourism and hospitality service providers and service robot designers, future empirical studies could shed more light on the relationship between robots-based service delivery systems and discrimination in the tourism and hospitality context.     

Lifestyle entrepreneurs and their identity construction: A study of the tourism industry

The present study takes issue with the uniform conceptualization of lifestyle entrepreneurs in previous research by drawing on identity theory and life-story interviews with lifestyle entrepreneurs in Norway. This article aims to show how lifestyle entrepreneurs create their entrepreneurial identity and how this identity informs both their entrepreneurial actions in different ways and how they manage the enterprise. On the basis of a narrative understanding of identity this article differentiates between two dimensions of identity construction: (1) socially and culturally embedded versus independent, and (2) flexible versus stable. The main contribution of this study is that embedded or independent and also flexible or stable identity constructions dominate the identity-construction process for individual lifestyle entrepreneurs. On the basis of the latter this article reports four narrative types of lifestyle-entrepreneur identity construction: (1) the modern, (2) the loyal, (3) the freedom-seeking, (4) and the post-modern lifestyle entrepreneur.     

Importance-performance analysis (IPA) of sustainable tourism initiatives: The resident perspective

While importance-performance analysis (IPA) is one of the most ubiquitous methodological tools utilized in tourism research, its supply-side application to residents has been lacking. Additionally, little research has examined residents' perceptions of sustainable tourism initiatives (STIs) or their community's performance on these STIs. Given this gap, this study conducted an IPA of resident attitudes towards STIs across three U.S. counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia with varying levels of emphasis placed on sustainable tourism within their strategic plans. The results revealed residents of the three counties placed uniformly high levels of importance on the STIs, but varied in their perceptions of performance. The county with the most emphasis placed on sustainable tourism within their plan was found to have the highest performance evaluations. Methodological and theoretical considerations are discussed in detail, including the placement of cross-hairs and how IPA can be situated within social exchange theory and Oliver's expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm.     

The influence of the political environment and destination governance on sustainable tourism development: a study of Bled,Slovenia

In the context of sustainable tourism development, there are many studies about the exchange process between residents and tourism, yet this issue is practically unexplored with respect to the political environment of tourism. Therefore, this paper introduces and posits that the political environment is a necessary enabler for implementing sustainable tourism. The authors extend the established three-pillar sustainability concept by adding in the political dimension. Then they surveyed how residents' positive and negative perceptions of tourism impacts determine their satisfaction with life in the tourism destination and thus their support for tourism in their community. The model was empirically tested within the context of the long-established Alpine destination of Bled in Slovenia. The findings confirm the importance of the political environment and question the sustainability of Bled's tourism development. It is suggested that the community has relatively weak destination governance due to the underdeveloped political environment. The survey expands and deepens the tourism sustainability debate by adding in the political environment and how it relates to the emerging growth of research on destination governance. The proposed model can be adapted and applied to any destination in order to improve its governance, including the implementation of sustainable tourism development.     

The impact of terrorism on European tourism

This paper estimates the influence of terrorist attacks on European tourism through the short-term post hoc response of the airline industry and passengers. We use a seasonally-adjusted ARMA-GARCH methodology on unique datasets that examine changes in tourism as measured by ASKs, seats filled and changes in both fares and revenues. Traffic flows are found to fall despite significant fare reductions; however, this response varies substantially based on the flight origin and ticket-type purchased. We found that business travel slows substantially due to duty of care legislation for corporate transport. While we found evidence indicating substantial airline fare reductions, in the majority of investigated cases this response was unable to mitigate substantial reductions in passenger demand and flows across varying ticket types.     

Residents’ perceptions of community tourism impacts

This study investigated residents’ perceptions of tourism’s impact on communities. Data were collected via a statewide survey, using social exchange theory; results suggest residents recognize many positive and negative consequences. Those who feel tourism is important for economic development, benefit from it, and are knowledgeable about the greater positive impacts, but do not differ from others with respect to perceptions of tourism’s negative consequences. It is becoming clear that broad-based education and awareness campaigns may be a step toward increased understanding of the industry and, ultimately, greater support of the benefits to a community.     

Rukai indigenous tourism: Representations,cultural identity and Q method

In tourism, cultural representations of indigenous destinations are problematic. They are essential to the promotion of tourism, making destinations understandable and desirable to visitors. But they are also blamed for upsetting the cultural equilibrium of smaller destinations. However, in practice, the origin, mechanism and effects of touristic representations are not easy to identify. In this study, the problem of representations and resident cultural identity in indigenous tourism is explored. In consideration of the generative nature of representations and the contingency of subjectivities toward them, this study is context-specific, focusing on a small but significant community in southern Taiwan where indigenous tourism is a dominant industry and social issue. Q method, a technique designed for the systematic study of subjectivity in terms of opinions, beliefs, and attitudes is employed, eliciting responses from a P set (sample) of 30 participants. Subjectivities were elicited using photographs of one cultural representation, the indigenous Rukai standing stones. It was found that representations must be learned but can be ignored, and that in this community tourism is not the only socio-economic power that drives the feedback loop between representations and subjectivity. For tourism management, implications are that representations can be highly effective tools for destination promotion when informed by the diverse and highly individualized subjectivities of its residents and the production of quality local products.     

The effect of perceived trust on electronic commerce: Shopping online for tourism products and services in South Korea

According to the OECD's 2008 statistics (Seoul Finance Internet News, 2009), Korea was ranked number one in terms of the percentage of homes with Internet access, at 80.6% of the total population. The survey also reported that two-thirds of Koreans with access to the Internet at home are online shoppers. Many tourism companies now actively use Internet sites as a key marketing and sales vehicle for their products and services. To be successful, tourism e-commerce services must be trustworthy.     

International academic impact of Chinese tourism research: A review based on the analysis of SSCI tourism articles from 2001 to 2012

Between 2001 and 2011 Chinese authors published over 838,000 articles in SSCI rated journals, second only to authors in the United States. However Chinese tourism academics lagged behind their counterparts in obtaining such publications, with only 157 papers in the Thomson Reuters SSCI listing for tourism and hospitality. However in recent years the numbers of Chinese authored publications have significantly increased. The paper argues that access to SSCI ranked publications is important for Chinese tourism academics because (a) it helps inform the world of developments in Chinese tourism, (b) it is a recognition of the standards of Chinese research and a means of improving Chinese research and (c) it provides a motive for international collaboration between Chinese researchers and their counterparts.     

Community involvement and place identity: the role of perceived values,perceived fairness,and subjective well-being

This research aims to discuss the community residents’ place identity to rural tourists site by exploring residents’ perceived values, perceived fairness, and subjective well-being in their involvement behavior. The evidence of relationship among those constructs in theory and practice is provided in this study. With the samples gained from a typical and representative rural tourists site in China, the outcomes of a structural equation modeling approach demonstrated that community members’ involvement at rural tourists site positively affects perceived values and fairness; they, thereby, contributes to residents’ subjective well-being. At last, subjective well-being plays an effective predictor of place identity to the rural tourists site.     

Perceptions of tourism revenue sharing impacts on Volcanoes National Park,Rwanda: a Sustainable Livelihoods framework

Tourism revenue sharing (TRS) has become a popular strategy for integrated wildlife conservation and rural development in Africa. In Rwanda, 5% of tourism revenue is invested annually in communities adjacent to protected areas. However, the conservation impact of the TRS strategy has been challenged. Previous studies have revealed structural constraints of TRS, which partially explain TRS shortfalls. The TRS application is complex and needs deeper understanding of both conceptual and structural constraints. In this paper, we examine local perceptions of TRS, and use the Sustainable Livelihoods framework to conceptually understand the livelihood capability, equity and sustainability constraints of TRS at Volcanoes National Park (VNP). Results suggest that TRS has had minimal conservation impact due to acute food insecurity and limited livelihood capabilities among the poorest residents in proximity to VNP. This is exacerbated by several TRS structural constraints, such as the association membership fee requirement for TRS benefits, political influence, poor conservation linkages, and limited participation of the most socially and economically disadvantaged residents in proximity to VNP. This paper recommends restructuring of the TRS decision-making process to ensure consideration of both short-term and long-term conservation goals, wildlife conservation linkages and participation of the most economically disadvantaged residents in proximity to the park boundary.     

The long-run impact of exchange rate regimes on international tourism flows

Notwithstanding the systematic inclusion of an exchange rate variable of some form in studies examining international tourism flows, hardly any research has been carried out to test for a possible exchange rate regime effect. Drawing from recent advances in exchange rate regime classifications, this paper begins to fill this gap by investigating the impact of exchange rate regimes on international tourism flows. The study employs a system generalized methods of moments (SYS-GMM) estimation for tourist arrivals on a panel of 27 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and non OECD countries for the period 1980–2011. The results identify multiple exchange rate regime effects and support the importance of maintaining a relatively stable exchange rate to attract international tourist arrivals.