h i g h l i g h t sTourist trip satisfaction impacts likelihood of returning and related revenues. Changes in factors affecting satisfaction impact revenue arising from repeat visits. Economic, social and environmental factors impact trip satisfaction. Many industries outside tourism impact on factors influencing trip satisfaction. Developing tourism policy requires a holistic view incorporating all local industries.
a b s t r a c tTourism is vital to the economy of many regions; however visitor numbers in some are stagnating. Using a novel approach, this case study of the Great Barrier Reef explores and quantifies risks to visitor numbers, utilising tourist survey data supplemented by objective data from secondary sources. Economic, social and environmental factors affecting trip satisfaction are identified, which itself is found to affect the likelihood of a tourist returning; the impact of changes on trip satisfaction and on repeat visits is then estimated. Linkages between tourism and other industries are clearly demonstrated; increased construction work, decreased water clarity and decreased perceptions of tourist safety are all estimated to significantly reduce likelihood of repeat visits and hence impact tourist revenues, placing the financial viability of the industry at risk. Future development within the region should be evaluated holistically, rather than industries such as tourism, construction, agriculture etc. each being developed in isolation.
Combining insights from literature on the Theory of Change, Impact Evaluation, and Wellbeing, we develop a novel approach to assessing impacts. Intended beneficiaries identify and rate factors that are important to their wellbeing, their satisfaction with those factors now, and before an intervention. Qualitative responses to questions about perceived changes and causes of change are linked to quantitative data to draw inferences about the existence and/or importance of impact(s). We use data from 67 Ewamian people, in a case study relating to Indigenous land management, to provide proof of concept. 'Knowing that country is being looked after' and 'Having legal right/access to the country' were identified as important to wellbeing, with perceptions that Native Title determination, declared Indigenous Protected Area and associated land management programs have had a significant and positive impact on them. Further method testing might determine the utility of this approach in a wide range of settings.
In 2015, all 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These 17 goals, 169 targets, and 232 indicators (including over 650 indicators if all the subdivisions are included) are intended to guide and improve sustainable wellbeing and life satisfaction for everyone on earth. Challenges include the fact that many indicators are not measured or reliably tracked in many countries, the cost of tracking is unclear, and no explicit overarching goal exists. To highlight some of the problems with this approach, we model life satisfaction (LS) survey scores by country, as a proxy for overall wellbeing, as the dependent variable against the official 232 SDG indicators. Using a constrained linear regression approach (LASSO), we identify a model that includes only 8 of the 232 indicators and explains 84% of the variation in LS. These eight indicators are proxies for economic, social, and environmental variables. We also cluster countries according to these indicators and LS showing correlation within geographical and cultural regions. We discuss these results with regard to the meaning and measurement of sustainable development vs. sustainable wellbeing and its relationship with LS and the SDGs. We recommend how these results can be used to prioritize goals and measurement efforts to create more meaningful and useful measures of sustainable wellbeing.
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