Residents' Perceptions of Tourism: a Comparative Study of Two Caribbean Communities
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
RESIDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF TOURISM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO CARIBBEAN COMMUNITIES AFZAL ABDOOL A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of Bournemouth University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2002 BournemouthUniversity in collaboration with the BarbadosMinistry of Tourism and International Transport and the Tobago Division of Tourism BEST COPY AVAILABLE COPYRIGHT STATEMENT This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and due acknowledgementsmust always be made of the use of any material contained in, or derived from, this thesis. In evaluating the social implications of tourism it can best be described as representing an achievement crisis. An achievement crisis exists when the implementation of a plan or policy results in some definite benefit or achievements but which in making these achievements, brings with it a number of problems or crises as well. Dr. Farley Braithwaite, Barbados Afzal Abdool Residents' Perception of Tourism: 3 A comparative study of two Caribbean communities ABSTRACT This study addressed the issue of residents' perception of tourism in two Small Island developing states and sought to compare resident's support for tourism between a mature destination and a less developed destination. This was achieved using a linear model, based on previous work by Jurowski et al (1997). Another objective was to compare the findings with those of a previous study conducted in 1990. Employing ethnographic techniques, the research was carried out on the two peripheral communities of Speightstown and Charlotteville in the Caribbean islands of Barbados and Tobago, respectively. The first stage involved a pilot study which consisted of two focus group meetings. The outcome of these sessions provided useful information for refining the draft questionnaire, which underwent further refinement after piloting on the streets. The second stage was the main survey of 420 residents conducted over 8 weeks using the questionnaire as an interview schedule. The findings suggest that there is widespread support for tourism development in both communities despite their varying levels of tourism sophistication and residents' perceptions of negative consequences of tourism. This apparent paradox was explained by Social Exchange Theory. Key variables which influence support for tourism were found to be personal and community benefits, socio-environmental impacts and community attachment. A proposed Caribbean Tourism Support Model was found to be more applicable in the Barbados context and this may suggest that several other factors influence tourism support in emerging destinations such as Tobago. This study makes a useful contribution to the body of knowledge on hosts' perceptions of tourism as it builds on previous research conducted in other countries while it provides empirical evidence of the applicability of established theories reported in the subject literature. Further, its significance is also derived not only from its use of consistent methodologies in each of the two study areas, but also in the fact that both surveys were conducted within the same timeframe. In this light, it may be considered pioneering research. Nonetheless, this study remains exploratory in nature indicating that further research is necessary in developing a deterministic for development model of support tourism in a contemporary Caribbean context. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 12 Tourism as a social phenomenon 12 Background of the study 13 Tourism Impact studies 14 Social Impact Studieson CaribbeanTourism 15 Social Exclusion 16 Tourism and Fair Trade 17 The need for empirical research 18 Formulation of the problem 19 Levels of tourism dependency 19 Heterogeneous Community 21 Impacting Variables 21 Contradictory Findings 22 Local community support 23 Perceptionsinform Planning 23 Small scale 24 Comparative Studies 25 Gapsin Research 25 Cross cultural comparisons 25 Significance of this study 26 Consistent research design and implementation 26 Introduction of new variables 26 Suitability of Research Areas 27 Contribution to knowledge 28 Research Objectives 28 The Study Areas 29 Organization of the study 30 CHAPTER TWO: RESIDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL IMPACTS -A LITERATURE REVIEW 33 Introduction 33 Socio-cultural Impacts: The Theoretical Background 33 Definition 33 Tourism as a change agent 33 Types of Impacts 35 Host-GuestInterface 35 Determinantsof Impacts 36 The Unit of Analysis 37 Table of Contents The concept of Community 38 Rural and Urban Communities 38 Perception vs. Attitudes 39 Heterogeneityof perceptions 40 Contradictory Empirical Results 41 Impacting Variables 43 Demographicfactors 44 Size of community 45 Stateof the Local Economy 45 Level of development 46 Balance of Power 48 Participation in decision making / control over tourism planning 48 Economic dependenceon tourism 49 Distance of residencefrom tourist centre 50 Utilization of the Resourcebase 51 Access to recreational amenities 51 Traffic congestion 52 Length of Residence 52 Birthplace 53 Community attachment 53 Community Concern 55 Frequency of tourist contact 56 Cultural Differences 57 Crime 57 Prostitution 58 Public educationprogrammes 58 Conclusion 59 CHAPTER THREE: THE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 61 Introduction 61 The Major Theories 61 Butler's Destination Lifecycle Model 61 Limitations 63 Doxey's Irridex 64 Application of the stagemodels 65 Social ExchangeTheory 66 Application of Social Exchange Theory 69 Analytic and Explanatory Framework 70 Limitations of Social Exchange Theory 72 Modelling Support for Tourism 72 Conclusion 76 CHAPTER FOUR: AN OVERVIEW OF CARIBBEAN TOURISM 77 Introduction 77 Peculiarities of Island Economies 77 Importance of Tourism to the Caribbean 78 Tourist-Dependent Economies 80 Table of Contents Market Profile 81 Traditional Markets 81 Product Differentiation 82 Chronic Seasonality 82 Tourism Policy and Planning 83 Conclusion 84 CHAPTER FIVE: THE TOBAGO TOURISM INDUSTRY 86 Introduction 86 Tourism in Tobago 86 Economy 87 Tourist Arrivals 90 SourceMarkets 90 Accommodation sector 91 Infrastructure 92 Tourism Awareness 93 Tourism Development Policy in Trinidad and Tobago 94 The Tobago Development Plan 94 Beach Access 95 Study Area Number One: Charlotteville 96 Conclusion 98 CHAPTER SIX: THE BARBADOS TOURISM INDUSTRY 99 Introduction 99 Tourism in Barbados 99 Economy 100 Infrastructure 101 Tourism Development Policy in Barbados 102 Destination Image 104 Market Profile 104 The Tourism Product 105 . Tourism Awareness 105 Community Tourism Programme 106 . Impedimentsto Beach Access 106 -All-Inclusive Hotel Development 107 Study Area Number Two: Speightstown 110 Conclusion 112 CHAPTER SEVEN: METHODOLOGY - THE PILOT STUDY 113 Introduction 113 Table of Contents Selectionof study areas 113 The Timing 114 Preparatory work 115 Administrative support 116 Pilot study 117 Why Focus Groups 118 How Many Groups 120 Composition of Group 121 Size of the Focus Group 124 Finding Participants 125 The Venue 127 Moderation of the Focus Groups 128 Why use interviews for data collection 131 Composing the interview schedule 131 Measurementscales 132 Level of measurement 133 Testing the Questionnaire 133 Revising the Questionnaire 134 Coding the Questionnaire 137 Conclusion 138 CHAPTER EIGHT: METHODOLOGY - THE MAIN STUDY 139 Introduction 139 Fieldwork Objectives 139 The sampling frame 140 The sampling technique 141 Samplesize 142 Data collection 143 Primary data 144 The Interview Process 144 Secondary Data 146 Manpower requirements 146 Training 147 The Implementation Process 148 Data Processing 148 Challengesencountered 150 Limitations of the methodology 153 Conclusion 154 CHAPTER NINE: ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 156 Introduction 156 Uni-Variate Analysis 156 Frequencies 156 Data manipulation 157 Descriptives 158 Table of Contents Skewness and Kurtosis 158 Outliers 159 Test for Normality 160 ScaleReliability and Validity 161 Reliability 162 Socio-environmental Impacts 163 Community & PersonalBenefits 165 Community Attachment 165 Involvement in Tourism 166 Cultural Impacts 167 Perceptionof Tourism Work 167 Two SamplesCompared 168 Similarities in Demographics 168 Similarities in Perceptions 169 Policy Guidelines for future development 170 Bivariate Analysis 170 Chi-SquareTest 170 PearsonProduct-Moment Correlation 172 Summary of Bi-variate Results 172 Speightstown 172 Charlotteville 173 Multi-Variate Analysis 174 Interpretation of the Output of Factor Analysis 176 Speightstown 176 Charlotteville 177 Common themes between samples 179 Key differencesbetween samples 179 Multiple RegressionAnalysis 180 The CaribbeanTourism Support Model 181 Interpretation of Output of Regression 182 Checking the Assumptions 182 Multicollinearity 182 Tolerance 182 Evaluating the Model 183 Evaluating eachof the independentVariables 183 Charlotteville 184 Checking the Assumptions 184 Multicollinearity 184 Tolerance 184 Outliers, Normality, Linearity, Homoscedasticity, Independenceof Residuals 184 Evaluating the Model 185 Evaluating eachof the independentVariables 185 Applicability of CTS Model 185 Conclusion 186 Table of Contents CHAPTER TEN: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS 189 Introduction 189 The Research Process 189 Key Outcomes 190 A Longitudinal Comparison 192 Application of Theoretical Models 195 Butler's Destination Life Cycle Model 195 Applicability of Doxey's Irridex Model 196 Social ExchangeTheory 197 Implications for Planning Authorities 199 Image and Involvement