Schiermonnikoog: searching for sustainable tourism on the Wadden Island Residents’ attitudes towards tourism A.M.A (Anna Maria Astrid) Wester Wageningen University and Research Department of Environmental Science Cultural Geography Chair Group Thesis code: GEO80436 Student registration number: 910901943120 Submission date: 10 August 2019 Supervisor: dr. ir. Maarten Jacobs Examiner: Prof. dr. Edward Huijbens *** Disclaimer: This thesis is a student report produced as a part of the Master Program Leisure, Tourism and Environment. It is not an official publication and the content does not represent an official position of Wageningen University and Research Centre 2 Us fjuertúer Wat stieste der statich op us eilander dúne heich op de útkyk houdste de wacht, yn starm en eeuwnweer yn kaude en jitte dochst dien plichten by dei en by nacht (Lammert Wiersma, n.d.) 3 Acknowledgements I think I just wrote the last sentence of my thesis, which I can hardly believe to be true. For over two years I have been telling people that the only thing I had to do to finally graduate is to write my thesis. It was by far the biggest, not only cognitive, challenge I have ever had. The process of this thesis writing taught me even better what my qualities are and what they are not. It also proved me that I can finish things if I really want to. However, I have to be honest; without my friends and family I would have quitted a long time ago already. Special thanks to my parents, Aldert en Aafke, for motivating me and encouraging me to finish this study. Thanks to Sas, for putting a little voice in my head that I would regret giving up; it helped a lot! A final thank you to my girlfriend Anja, for thinking along, inspiring and helping me to continue when I wanted to give up. Although I have not been around much the last two year, I will miss Wageningen UR. I enjoyed the nice atmosphere, the good organization and the skillful lecturers. Thank you! 4 Table of Content LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES 7 SUMMARY 8 1. INTRODUCTION 9 2.THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 11 2.1 Sustainable Tourism and the role of residents 11 2.2 Tourism impacts 11 2.3 Residents’ attitudes of tourism impacts: definitional issues 13 2.4 Attitudes towards tourism impacts 14 2.4.1 Residents’ attitudes towards economic impacts 14 2.4.2 Residents’ attitudes towards socio-cultural impacts 15 2.4.3 Residents attitudes towards environmental impacts 15 2.4.4 Summary of attitudes towards tourism impacts 16 2.5 Individual differences: the factors 16 2.5.1 Extrinsic variables 18 2.5.2. Intrinsic variables 18 2.6 Conceptual Framework 19 2.7 Research questions 19 3. METHODS 21 Case study: the island Schiermonnikoog 21 Character of the thesis 22 3.1 Data Collection 22 3.1.1 Sampling strategy 22 3.1.2 Recruitment and access 23 3.1.3 Interview content and guide 24 3.2 Data Analysis 26 3.2.1 Interview transcription 26 3.2.2 Steps of data analysis 26 4. RESULTS 29 4.1 Feelings and emotions 30 4.2 Actions and behavior 30 4.3 Thoughts and believes 31 4.4 Extrinsic factors 33 4.4.1 Type/character of tourists 33 4.4.2 Seasonality 34 4.5 Intrinsic factors 35 4.5.1 Economic dependency on tourism 36 4.5.2 Age groups 36 4.6 Integration results 37 5. DISCUSSION 40 5 5.1 Discussion on the findings 40 5.2 Recommendations: sustainable tourism and future policy ideas 43 5.3 Limitations 45 CONCLUSION 48 REFERENCES 50 APPENDICES 53 Annex 1: Interview guide in English 53 Annex 2: Interview guide in Dutch 55 Annex 3: Interview transcripts and analysis 57 6 List of tables and figures Figures Figure 1: Overview of the Dutch Wadden Sea area Figure 2: Visual representation of the ABC model Figure 3: Visual representation of the conceptual model of this study Figure 4: An overview of the island Schiermonnikoog (Rebel Ontwerp, 2018) Tables Table 1: Studies focusing on tourism impacts Table 2: Variables that influence people’s perceptions of tourism adopted from Sharpley (2014) Table 3: Desired and actual amount of participants Table 4: Questions and prompts used in previous qualitative studies on residents’ attitudes towards tourism Table 5: Example of coding scheme + participants quotes Table 6: Desired and actual amount of participants 7 Summary World Heritage Destination ‘The Wadden Sea’ and the surrounding islands are popular tourist destinations. The high and increasing amount of visitors and the ever-lengthening tourism season cause challenges for the future livability of these islands, therefore several organizations and governmental bodies developed ‘The Tourism Strategy’ (CWSS, 2014), a policy document that aims to make tourism at the Wadden Islands more sustainable. This studies goal was to determine residents’ attitudes towards tourism, since the literature indicated that this is one of the aspects that has to be known in order to be able to achieve sustainable tourism (Edgell et al., 2008). An inside in residents’ perspectives of tourism can help policy makers to develop (better) policy plans. The Dutch Wadden Island Schiermonnikoog was picked as a case study given the current tourism developments at the island that may impede successful sustainable tourism. Residents’ attitudes towards tourism were examined via 18 semi-structured interviews with inhabitants of Schiermonnikoog. The data was analysed by the use of Boeije’s (2012) ’spiral of data analysis’. It was found that most participants held positive attitudes towards tourism impacts at the island. Although many, mainly socio-cultural, negative impacts of tourism were mentioned; the economic gain of tourism development seemed to be dominant in the creation of attitudes towards tourism for almost all participants. A small group of residents held more negative attitudes towards the tourism and wants the sector to reduce or even retreat. Younger people held more positive attitudes towards tourism than elderly people. There are indications that residents’ attitudes differ during the time of the year (seasonality). The type/character of tourists did not seem to chance residents’ attitudes of tourism. If economic/employment dependency on tourism results in different attitudes could not be properly examined. Crowing and a too long tourism season are issues almost all residents complained about. Policy makers should act up on these opinions to keep the local community on board, since achieving sustainable tourism without the generosity and goodwill of local residents is almost impossible. 8 Introduction The Wadden Islands (also referred to as ‘Frisian Islands’) are located in an 8000km2 coastal zone in The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark and are part of ‘World Heritage Destination The Wadden Sea’. These islands are popular tourist destinations and loved for their beautiful nature, peace and quietness. The high and increasing amount of visitors brings changes to the islands, such as environmental pollution, overcrowding of public spaces (CWSS, 2014) and longer waiting times for the ferries (Zeeman, 2016). In order to deal with these changes and to make sure that Wadden Sea area is still beautiful and livable in the future, policy plans are developed. The Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS) is the responsible organization for the coordination of policies of the international Wadden Sea. Together with state parties, NGOs and nature organizations of the three ‘Wadden’ countries the ‘Wadden Sea World Heritage Strategy 2014-2020’ was created to ‘Experience and Help Preserve a Natural Wonder’ (CWSS, 2015: 1). Part of this plan is ‘The Tourism Strategy’ (CWSS, 2014), which focuses on how to achieve sustainable tourism in the Wadden area. Tourism stakeholders were also included in the development of this strategy. The document (‘Sustainable Tourism in the Wadden Sea World Heritage Destination’) contains all kinds of measures and policies that should result in sustainable tourism at the Wadden islands. All’s well that ends well, you might say. But there is a problem with the policy document. The problem is that it does not include the views of local residents regarding tourism. They are not asked to share their opinions and/or idea’s on the current state and future of tourism on the island they live on. One might wonder why it such a big deal that residents’ opinions are not included in the tourism strategy. According to the literature on sustainable tourism we do need them to safeguard a sustainable future for the Wadden. Many scholars (e.g. Choi & Murray, 2010; Deery et al, 2012) argue that residents are essential to generate future strategies and to achieve successful sustainable tourism (e.g. Lee, 2013; Segota et al., 2017; Eusebio, 2018). Residents (also referred to as locals or hosts) are the ones that have to deal with tourism and tourists on a daily basis, so their generosity and goodwill is very important for the success of tourism at any destination (Dyer et al., 2007). ‘A host’s anger, apathy or mistrust will ultimately be conveyed to the tourists and is likely to result in their reluctance to visit places where they feel unwelcome’ (Gursoy et al., 2002: 80). To travelers, there is not much more important than how they are treated by host communities, so if they do not feel to be accepted, they will not return and go somewhere else (Diedrich & Garcia, 2008). You do not want this as a tourism destination. Especially not when your economy is fully depended on tourism and over 80 percent of your residents (on Schiermonnikoog: VVV, 2018) works in the industry. Therefore it is highly important for governments, tourism managers and policy makers to understand the views that resident’s hold towards tourism (Dyer et al., 2007; Lee, 2013).