Fostering Coastal Destination Resilience in Maine: Understanding Climate Change Risks and Behaviors
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The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fogler Library Fall 12-20-2020 Fostering Coastal Destination Resilience in Maine: Understanding Climate Change Risks and Behaviors Lydia Horne University of Maine, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd Part of the Climate Commons, and the Tourism and Travel Commons Recommended Citation Horne, Lydia, "Fostering Coastal Destination Resilience in Maine: Understanding Climate Change Risks and Behaviors" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3365. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/3365 This Open-Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FOSTERING COASTAL DESTINATION RESILIENCE IN MAINE: UNDERSTANDING CLIMATE CHANGE RISKS AND BEHAVIORS By Lydia Horne B.S. St. Lawrence University, 2013 M.S. University of Maine, 2017 A DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Ecology and Environmental Sciences) The Graduate School The University of Maine December 2020 Advisory Committee: Sandra De Urioste-Stone, Associate Professor of Nature-Based Tourism, Advisor Bridie McGreavy, Associate Professor of Environmental Communication Parinaz Rahimzadeh-Bajgiran, Assistant Professor of Remote Sensing Laura Rickard, Associate Professor of Risk Communication Erin Seekamp, Professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, North Carolina State University Copyright 2020 Lydia Horne ii FOSTERING COASTAL DESTINATION RESILIENCE IN MAINE: UNDERSTANDING CLIMATE CHANGE RISKS AND BEHAVIORS By Lydia Horne Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Sandra De Urioste-Stone An Abstract of the Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Ecology and Environmental Sciences) December 2020 Tourism is an increasingly important global industry. Coastal and nature-based tourism destinations are especially vulnerable to climate change. Trends in visitation are expected to shift under changing climate conditions, influencing tourist travel behaviors related to destination selection, timing of visits, and activity participation. Tourism suppliers’ adaptation and mitigation behaviors have the potential to alleviate negative shifts in visitation and respond to negative climate change impacts, while also enabling suppliers to take advantage of emerging opportunities. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand how tourism stakeholders, including tourism suppliers (i.e., business owners, managers) and consumers (i.e., visitors), perceive their risk from climate change and how that impacts their behavioral responses. Applying theories of risk perceptions and community resilience, we used a mixed methods approach to understand factors that influence destination resilience and stakeholder climate change risk perceptions and actions. We employed in-depth interviews, archival evidence, and a visitor survey to gather data from study participants. In chapter 2, we used a phenomenological methodology to examine how tourism stakeholders in Machias, Maine are experiencing and adapting to climate change. Findings indicate that social networks centered around shared values, beliefs, and sense of place, as well as engaged local governance, active knowledge sharing, and a sense of self-efficacy all contributed to agency in addressing coastal flooding. In chapter 3, we used a survey to measure drivers of visitors’ climate change risk perceptions in Acadia National Park, Maine. Significant predictors included identifying as female, having higher belief in climate change, having more first-hand experience with climate change impacts, and having a higher altruistic values orientation. In chapter 4, we used a case study methodology to understand the influence of supplier and visitor climate change risk perceptions and behavioral responses on destination resilience. Our findings show where areas of overlap between tourism supplier and visitor experiences, perceptions of threats, and behavioral responses can contribute to destination resilience. The ability of Maine’ tourism industry to assess their risk from climate change, adapt to impacts, and anticipate socio-ecological changes will influence system resilience to respond to climate change and potentially other shocks and stressors. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to my family and friends for their unending support, advice, and encouragement. I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Sandra De Urioste-Stone, for her years of support and mentorship. I would also like to thank Drs. McGreavy, Rahimzadeh-Bajgiran, Rickard, and Seekamp for their support throughout this project. Thank you to my lab group and my NRT colleagues for their support and commiseration, especially the Shifting Seasons team. I have to especially thank Nicole Bernsen, Brooke Hafford-MacDonald, Alyssa Soucy, Sara Velardi, and Emily Wilkins for being such a great support system within UMaine and from afar. I also cannot thank Brie Berry, Anna McGinn, and Sara Lowden enough for always being ready to talk about research, writing, graduate life, and the state of the world. Without you three, I would have stopped long ago. I would also like to thank all the student researcher assistants who contributed to my work at UMaine including Nathaniel Burke, MacKenzie Conant, Ashley Cooper, Asha DiMatteo-LePape, Nick Ferrauolo, Hope Kohtala, and Morelys Rodriguez Alfonso. Thank you to Schoodic Institute and especially Sarah Hooper for being a great mentor and for learning with me throughout the summer. Thank you to Acadia National Park for generous permission to conduct visitor surveys on location. I thank my participants whose willingness to share their thoughts and experiences made this project possible. I enjoyed learning from you all. This work was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (grant NA17OAR4310249); the National Science Foundation (grant 1828466); the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (McIntire-Stennis project number ME0-42017). iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... x LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Theoretical Foundations ........................................................................................................ 2 1.2.1 Risk Perceptions ............................................................................................................. 2 1.2.1.1 Socio-Demographic Influences ................................................................................ 7 1.2.1.2 Cognitive .................................................................................................................. 9 1.2.1.3. Experiential Processes .......................................................................................... 11 1.2.1.4 Socio-Cultural ........................................................................................................ 12 1.2.2 Resilience Thinking and Community Resilience ......................................................... 13 1.3 Problem Statement .............................................................................................................. 15 1.4 Paradigm and Researcher as Instrument ............................................................................. 18 1.4.1 Researcher-As-Instrument ............................................................................................ 21 1.5 Organization of the Dissertation ......................................................................................... 23 iv CHAPTER 2: UNDERSTANDING COMMUNITY RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN A RURAL NATURE-BASED TOURISM DESTINATION IN MAINE, U.S.A. ...................... 25 2.1 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................ 25 2.2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 25 2.2.1 Community Resilience ................................................................................................. 26 2.2.2 Tourism Destinations and Climate Resilience.............................................................. 29 2.3 Methods ............................................................................................................................... 32 2.3.1 Study Site ...................................................................................................................... 32 2.3.2 Methodology ................................................................................................................